Today in History, August 1st
On August 1, 1944, the Polish Home Army launched the Warsaw Uprising against German occupation. Plus Colorado statehood and MTV's debut.
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August 1 is best known for 1944, when Poland’s underground Home Army rose up against the German occupiers of Warsaw. The date also saw Colorado become the 38th state in 1876 and MTV go on the air in 1981.
The big story: The Warsaw Uprising begins (1944)
In the summer of 1944, a Soviet armored column reached the Vistula River at Warsaw’s eastern edge. Poland’s Home Army, an underground force loyal to the Polish government-in-exile in London and wary of the communists, saw a chance to free the capital itself before the Soviets marched in. On August 1, about 40,000 lightly armed fighters under General Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski rose up. Hitler ordered the revolt crushed at any cost, and SS-led units moved in to retake the city. The Soviets, sitting across the river, did nothing to help and even refused to let British planes use their airfields to drop supplies. After 63 days, the rebels surrendered on October 2. Roughly 200,000 civilians had died, along with three-quarters of the Home Army. The Germans then emptied the city and blew up much of what was left standing. When Warsaw was finally liberated on January 17, 1945, no organized opposition was left to stand in the way of a communist government.
More events on August 1
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1498 | Christopher Columbus sighted the coast of present-day Venezuela, which he took to be an island. |
| 1714 | Queen Anne, the last Stuart monarch, died at age 49 (Old Style). |
| 1786 | Caroline Herschel became the first woman credited with discovering a comet. |
| 1834 | Britain’s Slavery Abolition Act took effect in most British colonies. |
| 1861 | The world’s first weather forecast was published. |
| 1876 | Colorado joined the Union as the 38th state. |
| 1914 | Germany declared war on Russia, and France ordered a general mobilization, widening World War I. |
| 1936 | Adolf Hitler opened the Summer Olympics in Berlin, where Jesse Owens and other African American athletes went on to undercut Nazi propaganda. |
| 1975 | The Helsinki Final Act was signed at the close of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. |
| 1980 | Vigdís Finnbogadóttir became president of Iceland, the first woman elected head of state in a national election. |
| 1981 | MTV launched, opening with the Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star.” |
| 2005 | King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, who had ruled since 1982, died and was succeeded by his half brother Abdullah. |
Born on August 1
- 1744: Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, French biologist known for an early theory of evolution, born in Bazentin-le-Petit, France.
- 1818: Maria Mitchell, the first professional woman astronomer in the United States, born on Nantucket, Massachusetts.
- 1819: Herman Melville, author of Moby-Dick, born in New York City.
- 1920: Henrietta Lacks, whose cells, taken without her consent, became the HeLa cell line used in countless medical studies, born in Roanoke, Virginia.
Sources
- Warsaw revolt begins, History.com
- This Day in History: August 1, History.com
- On This Day: August 1, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Maria Mitchell, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Herman Melville, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Henrietta Lacks, Encyclopaedia Britannica
