Albert Ketèlbey (9 August 1875 – 26 November 1959) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist, best known for his light orchestral music. He was born in Birmingham, moving to London in 1889 to study at Trinity College of Music where he became musical director of the Vaudeville Theatre. For many years Ketèlbey worked for music publishers including Chappell & Co and the Columbia Graphophone Company, providing arrangements for smaller orchestras. He composed accompanying music for silent films; In a Monastery Garden (1915) sold over a million copies and brought widespread notice. Later soundtracks for exotic scenes such as In a Persian Market (1920, cover pictured), In a Chinese Temple Garden (1923), and In the Mystic Land of Egypt (1931), became best-sellers; by the late 1920s Ketèlbey was Britain's first millionaire composer. His popularity waned during the Second World War. In 1949 he retired to the Isle of Wight, where he died in obscurity. In a 2003 poll by the BBC's Your Hundred Best Tunes, Bells across the Meadows was voted the thirty-sixth most popular tune of all time. ( Full article...)

William P. Ragsdale

• ... that the part-Hawaiian William P. Ragsdale (pictured), known as the "King of the Lepers", influenced Mark Twain's 1889 novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court?
• ... that David McKeon and Emma McKeon are the first brother and sister selected to swim for Australia at the same Olympic Games since 1960?
• ... that Bob Weir's inspiration for his upcoming solo album, Blue Mountain, was the time he worked as a 15-year-old ranch hand in Wyoming?
• ... that Josiah Holbrook organized the first industrial school in the United States?
• ... that Luton Town Football Club won their first major trophy in 1988?

Hurricane Earl

• At least 70 people are killed in a suicide bombing and shooting in Quetta, Pakistan.
• Landslides caused by Hurricane Earl (satellite image pictured) kill at least 41 people across Mexico.
• At least 21 people are killed and dozens of others injured in flooding in north-western Macedonia.
• The Summer Olympics open in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

August 9: International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples; Qixi Festival ( Chinese calendar, 2016)

Leaning Tower of Pisa

• 1173 – Construction began on a campanile, which would eventually become the Leaning Tower of Pisa (pictured).
• 1945 – World War II: USAAF bomber Bockscar dropped a "Fat Man" atomic bomb, devastating Nagasaki, Japan.
• 1971 – The Troubles: British authorities began arresting and interning (without trial) people accused of being republican paramilitary members.
• 2006 – British police arrested 24 people for conspiring to detonate liquid explosives carried on board at least 10 airliners travelling from the United Kingdom to the United States and Canada.