On This Day: Tuesday August 30, 2005 This is the 242nd day of the year, with 123 days remaining in 2005. Fact of the Day: Hoyle Edmond Hoyle was from London and he collected instructions for playing games; he may have been the first technical writer on card games. His "Short Treatise on the Game of Whist" was published in 1742 and it became the model guide to the rules of the game. Hoyle's name became synonymous with the idea of "correct" play according to the rules and the phrase "according to Hoyle" was first recorded in 1906 (OED). The Hoyle codification of the laws and strategy of backgammon (1743) is still largely in force. He also wrote treatises on chess (1761) and other games. Familiar with the laws of probability, he appended to one of his books a life table for annuities. He died at the age of 97. Holidays Feast Day of Saints Felix and Audauctus, St. Fantinus, St. Pammachius, St. Margaret Ward, and St. Ruan or Rumon. Peru: Saint Rose of Lima Day. Turkey: Victory Day. Events 1862 - Union forces were defeated by the Confederates at the Second Battle of Bull Run in Manassas, Virginia. 1881 - The first stereo system, for a telephonic broadcasting service, was patented in Germany by Clement Adler. 1901 - Scottish inventor Hubert Cecil Booth patented the vacuum cleaner. 1963 - The hot-line communications link between Washington, D.C. and Moscow went into operation. 1991 - Azerbaijan declared independence. 1999 - Residents of East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia in a United Nations-sponsored ballot. Births 1797 - Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, British novelist. 1870 - Maria Montessori, Italian educator. 1871 - Ernest Rutherford, New Zealand-born English physicist. 1898 - Shirley Booth, American actress. Deaths 30 B.C.E. - Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, by suicide. 1483 - Louis XI, King of France.