TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

On Aug. 8, 1974, following damaging new revelations in the Watergate scandal, President Richard M. Nixon announced that he would resign, and that Vice President Gerald R. Ford would succeed him.

ON THIS DATE

In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte set sail for St. Helena to spend the remainder of his days in exile.

@History item:In 1876, Thomas A. Edison received a patent for his mimeograph.

In 1942, six convicted Nazi saboteurs who had landed in the U.S. were executed in Washington, D.C.; two others were spared.

In 1945, President Harry S. Truman signed the United Nations Charter. The Soviet Union declared war against Japan during World War II.

In 1953, the United States and South Korea initialed a mutual security pact.

In 1963, Britain’s “Great Train Robbery” took place as thieves made off with 2.6 million pounds in banknotes.

In 1968, the Republican national convention in Miami Beach nominated Richard M. Nixon for president on the first ballot.

In 1973, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew branded as “damned lies” reports he had taken kickbacks from government contracts in Maryland, and vowed not to resign, which he ended up doing.

In 1978, the U.S. launched Pioneer Venus 2, which carried scientific probes to study the atmosphere of Venus.

In 1994, Israel and Jordan opened the first road link between the two once-warring countries.

Associated Press

@History item:In 2000, The wreckage of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley, which sank in 1864 after attacking the Union ship Housatonic, was recovered off the South Carolina coast and returned to port.

In 2009, Sonia Sotomayor was sworn in as the U.S. Supreme Court’s first Hispanic and third female justice.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Producer Dino DeLaurentiis is 91. Actress Esther Williams is 89. Actor Richard Anderson is 84. Joan Mondale, wife of former Vice President Walter F. Mondale, is 80. Actress Nita Talbot is 80. Singer Mel Tillis is 78. Actor Dustin Hoffman is 73.

Actress Connie Stevens is 72. Country singer Phil Balsley (The Statler Brothers) is 71. Actor Larry Wilcox is 63. Actor Keith Carradine is 61. Rhythm-and-blues singer Airrion Love (The Stylistics) is 61. Country singer Jamie O’Hara is 60. Movie director Martin Brest is 59. Radio-TV personality Robin Quivers is 58.

Actor Donny Most is 57. Rock musician Dennis Drew (10,000 Maniacs) is 53. TV personality Deborah Norville is 52. Actor-singer Harry Crosby is 52. Rock musician The Edge (U2) is 49. Rock musician Rikki Rockett (Poison) is 49.

Rapper Kool Moe Dee is 48. Rock musician Ralph Rieckermann is 48. Middle distance runner Suzy Favor-Hamilton is 42. Rock singer Scott Stapp is 37. Country singer Mark Wills is 37. Actor Kohl Sudduth is 36. Rock musician Tom Linton (Jimmy Eat World) is 35. Singer JC Chasez (‘N Sync) is 34. Actress Tawny Cypress is 34. Rhythm-and-blues singer Drew Lachey (98 Degrees) is 34. Rhythm-and-blues singer Marsha Ambrosius (Floetry) is 33.

Actress Countess Vaughn is 32. Actor Michael Urie is 30. Tennis player Roger Federer is 29. Actress Meagan Good is 29. Britain’s Princess Beatrice of York is 22. Actor Kenny Baumann (TV: “The Secret Life of the American Teenager”) is 21.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

“It is the anonymous ‘they,’ the enigmatic ‘they’ who are in charge. Who is ‘they’? I don’t know. Nobody knows. Not even ‘they’ themselves.” — Joseph Heller, American author (1923-1999).

Associated Press