Today in history
Today is Tuesday, August 29, the 241st day of 2017 and the 71st day of summer.
On this date in the SCV: In 1946, The Signal reported that cooler weather was taking the edge off the drought situation in Newhall but the question of a longterm adequate supply continued to worry all concerned. The Los Angeles City Bureau of Water and Power would have no surplus of aqueduct water for sale in the foreseeable future, and was up against the same supply problem that everybody else was. This fact was revealed by Judge Arthur C. Miller, after inquiry and consultation with attorneys and engineers for the bureau. This decision by the metropolitan authority definitely nipped any hopes that the local question could be solved by a simple process of tapping the bottom of a siphon on the “big pipe,” and threw the area back on its own local resources. For the Newhall Water Company, A. B. Perkins announced that the L. E. Tomson Drilling Co. of North Hollywood had been retained to sink a large well on water company property in Wildwood Canyon. Work would be started as soon as the Tomson company completed the well it was now drilling on the Wm. S. Hart High School site.
Today’s Highlights in History: In 1949, the Soviet Union conducted its
first atomic bomb test. In 1957, Democratic Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina concluded his 24-hour-long filibuster against the
Civil Rights Act of 1957. In 1991, the parliament of the Soviet Union suspended all Communist Party activities indefinitely. In 2005, Category 3 storm Hurricane Katrina made landfall near New Orleans.
Today’s fact: Strom Thurmond’s 1957 civil rights filibuster remains the longest one-man filibuster in history. It lasted 24 hours, 18 minutes and opened with Thurmond reading the voting laws of all 48 states.
Today’s sports: In 1977, St. Louis Cardinal Lou Brock stole two bases to match, then break, Ty Cobb’s record for career stolen bases, which had stood at 892 bases for 49 years.
Today’s number: 175 – top sustained wind speed (in mph) during Hurricane Katrina.
Today’s moon: First quarter moon
(Aug. 29).