August 2
1776 - Members of the Second Continental Congress began attaching their signatures to the Declaration of Independence.
1873 - Inventor Andrew S. Hallidie successfully tested a cable car he had designed for the city of San Francisco.
1876 - Wild Bill Hickok was murdered in Deadwood, South Dakota while playing poker by Jack McCall, who was later hanged.
1909 - The first Lincoln penny was issued.
1922 - Alexander Graham Bell, generally regarded as the inventor of the telephone, died in Nova Scotia, Canada at age 75.
1923 - Warren G. Harding, the 29th president of the United States, died in San Francisco from a heart attack at age 57; Vice President Calvin Coolidge became president.
1934 - German President Paul von Hindenburg died, paving the way for Adolf Hitler's complete takeover.
1939 - Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt urging the creation of an atomic weapons research program.
1943 - PT-109, a torpedo boat commanded by Lt. John F. Kennedy, was sunk off the Solomon Islands by a Japanese destroyer.
1945 - The Potsdam Conference, in which Allied leaders planned the postwar governance of Germany, ended.
1974 - Former White House counsel John W. Dean III was sentenced to one to four years in prison for obstruction of justice in the Watergate cover-up. (Dean ended up serving four months.)
1980 - Eighty-five people were killed when a bomb exploded at the train station in Bologna, Italy.
1985 - Delta Air Lines Flight 191, a Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, crashed while attempting to land at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, killing 137 people.
1990 - The Persian Gulf War broke out when Iraq invaded Kuwait.
2012 - Kofi Annan resigned as peace envoy to Syria, blaming the Syrian government’s intransigence, the growing militancy of Syrian rebels and a divided U.N. Security Council that he said failed to forcefully back his effort.
2017 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 22,000 for the first time, after stocks spent five months gradually moving higher.
Birthdays
21 - Sophia Mitchell (model)
30 - Hallie Eisenberg (actress)
30 - Charli XCX (singer)
37 - Marci Miller (actress)
38 - Britt Nicole (singer)
45 - Edward Furlong (actor)
46 - Sam Worthington (actor)
50 - Jacinda Barrett (actress)
52 - Kevin Smith (actor/writer/director)
58 - Mary-Louise Parker (actress)
60 - Cynthia Stevenson (actress)
63 - Victoria Jackson (actress)
65 - Mojo Nixon (singer)
69 - Butch Patrick (actor)
72 - Kathryn Harrold (actress)
77 - Joanna Cassidy (actress)
79 - Kathy Lennon (singer)
================================
Today in Sports History - August 2
1907 - Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson makes his MLB debut with the Washington Senators, beginning a 21-year career.
1921 - A jury in Chicago acquitted several former members of the Chicago White Sox baseball team and two others of conspiring to defraud the public in the notorious "Black Sox" scandal, in which they were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series.
1938 - Bright yellow baseballs were used in a major league baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the St. Louis Cardinals. It was hoped that the balls would be easier to see.
1968 - Ron Hansen (Washington Senators) & Tim Cullen (Chicago White Sox) become the first MLB players to be traded for each other twice in the same season; they had been traded in February in opposite directions.
1982 - Rickey Henderson of the Oakland Athletics becomes the first player in MLB history to steal 100 bases in a season in multiple seasons.
1992 - Tom Seaver, Rollie Fingers, Hal Newhouser and Bill McGowan are inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1996 - The U.S men's basketball team, "Dream Team III," defeated Yugoslavia 95-69 to win the gold medal at the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta.
2012 - Gabby Douglas became the third American in a row to win gymnastics’ biggest prize when she claimed the all-around Olympic title; Michael Phelps added to his medal collection with his first individual gold medal of the London Games in the 200-meter individual medley.
2017 - Former Notre Dame football coach Ara Parseghian died at his home in Granger, Indiana, at the age of 94.
1776 - Members of the Second Continental Congress began attaching their signatures to the Declaration of Independence.
1873 - Inventor Andrew S. Hallidie successfully tested a cable car he had designed for the city of San Francisco.
1876 - Wild Bill Hickok was murdered in Deadwood, South Dakota while playing poker by Jack McCall, who was later hanged.
1909 - The first Lincoln penny was issued.
1922 - Alexander Graham Bell, generally regarded as the inventor of the telephone, died in Nova Scotia, Canada at age 75.
1923 - Warren G. Harding, the 29th president of the United States, died in San Francisco from a heart attack at age 57; Vice President Calvin Coolidge became president.
1934 - German President Paul von Hindenburg died, paving the way for Adolf Hitler's complete takeover.
1939 - Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt urging the creation of an atomic weapons research program.
1943 - PT-109, a torpedo boat commanded by Lt. John F. Kennedy, was sunk off the Solomon Islands by a Japanese destroyer.
1945 - The Potsdam Conference, in which Allied leaders planned the postwar governance of Germany, ended.
1974 - Former White House counsel John W. Dean III was sentenced to one to four years in prison for obstruction of justice in the Watergate cover-up. (Dean ended up serving four months.)
1980 - Eighty-five people were killed when a bomb exploded at the train station in Bologna, Italy.
1985 - Delta Air Lines Flight 191, a Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, crashed while attempting to land at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, killing 137 people.
1990 - The Persian Gulf War broke out when Iraq invaded Kuwait.
2012 - Kofi Annan resigned as peace envoy to Syria, blaming the Syrian government’s intransigence, the growing militancy of Syrian rebels and a divided U.N. Security Council that he said failed to forcefully back his effort.
2017 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 22,000 for the first time, after stocks spent five months gradually moving higher.
Birthdays
21 - Sophia Mitchell (model)
30 - Hallie Eisenberg (actress)
30 - Charli XCX (singer)
37 - Marci Miller (actress)
38 - Britt Nicole (singer)
45 - Edward Furlong (actor)
46 - Sam Worthington (actor)
50 - Jacinda Barrett (actress)
52 - Kevin Smith (actor/writer/director)
58 - Mary-Louise Parker (actress)
60 - Cynthia Stevenson (actress)
63 - Victoria Jackson (actress)
65 - Mojo Nixon (singer)
69 - Butch Patrick (actor)
72 - Kathryn Harrold (actress)
77 - Joanna Cassidy (actress)
79 - Kathy Lennon (singer)
================================
Today in Sports History - August 2
1907 - Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson makes his MLB debut with the Washington Senators, beginning a 21-year career.
1921 - A jury in Chicago acquitted several former members of the Chicago White Sox baseball team and two others of conspiring to defraud the public in the notorious "Black Sox" scandal, in which they were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series.
1938 - Bright yellow baseballs were used in a major league baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the St. Louis Cardinals. It was hoped that the balls would be easier to see.
1968 - Ron Hansen (Washington Senators) & Tim Cullen (Chicago White Sox) become the first MLB players to be traded for each other twice in the same season; they had been traded in February in opposite directions.
1982 - Rickey Henderson of the Oakland Athletics becomes the first player in MLB history to steal 100 bases in a season in multiple seasons.
1992 - Tom Seaver, Rollie Fingers, Hal Newhouser and Bill McGowan are inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1996 - The U.S men's basketball team, "Dream Team III," defeated Yugoslavia 95-69 to win the gold medal at the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta.
2012 - Gabby Douglas became the third American in a row to win gymnastics’ biggest prize when she claimed the all-around Olympic title; Michael Phelps added to his medal collection with his first individual gold medal of the London Games in the 200-meter individual medley.
2017 - Former Notre Dame football coach Ara Parseghian died at his home in Granger, Indiana, at the age of 94.
