August 9
1854 - Henry David Thoreau's "Walden", recounting his experiment in solitary life on the shores of Walden Pond in Massachusetts, was published.
1902 - Britain's Edward VII was crowned king following the death of his mother, Queen Victoria.
1910 - The U.S. Patent Office granted Alva J. Fisher of the Hurley Machine Co. a patent for an electrically powered washing machine.
1934 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order nationalizing silver.
1942 - British authorities in India arrested nationalist Mohandas K. Gandhi; he was released in 1944.
1944 - 258 African-American sailors based at Port Chicago, California, refused to load a munitions ship following a cargo vessel explosion that killed 320 men, many of them Black. (Fifty of the sailors were convicted of mutiny, fined and imprisoned.)
1945 - The United States detonated a nuclear bomb over Nagasaki, Japan, three days after a similar strike on Hiroshima, which killed an estimated 74,000 people.
1965 - Singapore proclaimed its independence from Malaysia.
1969 - Actress Sharon Tate and four other people were found murdered in Los Angeles; cult leader Charles Manson and a group of his followers were later convicted of the crime.
1974 - Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn in as 38th president of the United States following the resignation of President Richard Nixon.
1982 - A federal judge in Washington, D.C. ordered John W. Hinckley Jr., who’d been acquitted of shooting President Ronald Reagan and three others by reason of insanity, committed to a mental hospital.
1985 - A federal judge in Norfolk, Virginia, found retired Navy officer Arthur J. Walker guilty of seven counts of spying for the Soviet Union.
1988 - President Ronald Reagan nominated Lauro Cavazos to be secretary of education, the first Hispanic to serve in the Cabinet.
1995 - Jerry Garcia, lead singer and guitarist of the Grateful Dead, died at age 53.
2001 - President George W. Bush approved federal funding for existing lines of embryonic stem cells.
2004 - Terry Nichols was sentenced to 161 consecutive life sentences on state murder charges in the Oklahoma City bombing.
2010 - Former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, 86, the longest serving Republican in the U.S. Senate, was killed in a plane crash in southwestern Alaska.
2011 - Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs was sentenced in San Angelo, Texas, to life in prison for sexually assaulting one of his child brides, and received the maximum 20-year punishment for a separate child sex conviction.
2014 - Michael Brown Jr., an 18-year-old Black man, was shot to death by a police officer following an altercation in Ferguson, Missouri; Brown’s death led to sometimes-violent protests in Ferguson and other U.S. cities, spawning a national “Black Lives Matter” movement.
Birthdays
30 - Alexa Bliss (professional wrestler)
31 - Bill Skarsgard (actor)
31 - Adelaide Kane (actress)
36 - Anna Kendrick (actress)
38 - Ashley Johnson (actress)
45 - Jessica Capshaw (actress)
46 - Rhona Mitra (actress)
48 - Kevin McKidd (actor)
49 - Liz Vassey (actress)
50 - Nikki Schieler Ziering (actress)
51 - Thomas Lennon (actor)
51 - Chris Cuomo (TV host)
51 - Rod Brind'Amour (hockey player/coach)
53 - Eric Bana (actor)
53 - Gillian Anderson (actress)
54 - Deion Sanders (football/baseball player)
57 - Hoda Kotb (TV host)
57 - Brett Hull (hockey player)
63 - Amanda Bearse (actress)
64 - Melanie Griffith (actress)
66 - Doug Williams (football player)
69 - John Cappelletti (football player)
74 - Barbara Mason (singer)
77 - Sam Elliott (actor)
83 - Rod Laver (tennis player)
87 - Cynthia Harris (actress)
93 - Bob Cousy (basketball player)
=======================================
Today in Sports History - August 9
1936 - Track star Jesse Owens became the first American to win four gold medals in one Olympics.
1971 - Satchel Paige is inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1975 - The New Orleans Superdome as officially opened when the Saints played the Houston Oilers in exhibition football. The new Superdome cost $163 million to build.
1981 - Major league baseball teams resumed play at the conclusion of the first mid-season players strike.
1988 - Hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky was traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings.
1990 - The NHL approved the sale of the Minnesota North Stars by George and Gordon Gund. The Gunds were granted the rights to a Bay Area team that could begin play in October 1991. The team was the San Jose Sharks.
2002 - Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants hit his 600th career home run, joining Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays as the fourth player in MLB history to reach that mark.
2012 - Shannon Eastin became the first female to officiate an NFL game when she worked as a line judge in a preseason game between the San Diego Chargers and the Green Bay Packers.
2012 - At the London Olympic Games, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt becomes the first runner to win the both the 100 and 200 meter sprints in back-to-back Olympic Games.
2012 - The United States women's soccer team defeats Japan 2-1 to win the Olympic gold in London.
2016 - At the Rio Games, Michael Phelps earned the 20th and 21st Olympic gold medals of his career as he won the 200-meter butterfly and anchored the United States to victory in the 4x200 freestyle relay.
2020 - Collin Morikawa closed with a 6-under-par 64 to win the PGA Championship in San Francisco, the first major golf tournament held without spectators.
1854 - Henry David Thoreau's "Walden", recounting his experiment in solitary life on the shores of Walden Pond in Massachusetts, was published.
1902 - Britain's Edward VII was crowned king following the death of his mother, Queen Victoria.
1910 - The U.S. Patent Office granted Alva J. Fisher of the Hurley Machine Co. a patent for an electrically powered washing machine.
1934 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order nationalizing silver.
1942 - British authorities in India arrested nationalist Mohandas K. Gandhi; he was released in 1944.
1944 - 258 African-American sailors based at Port Chicago, California, refused to load a munitions ship following a cargo vessel explosion that killed 320 men, many of them Black. (Fifty of the sailors were convicted of mutiny, fined and imprisoned.)
1945 - The United States detonated a nuclear bomb over Nagasaki, Japan, three days after a similar strike on Hiroshima, which killed an estimated 74,000 people.
1965 - Singapore proclaimed its independence from Malaysia.
1969 - Actress Sharon Tate and four other people were found murdered in Los Angeles; cult leader Charles Manson and a group of his followers were later convicted of the crime.
1974 - Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn in as 38th president of the United States following the resignation of President Richard Nixon.
1982 - A federal judge in Washington, D.C. ordered John W. Hinckley Jr., who’d been acquitted of shooting President Ronald Reagan and three others by reason of insanity, committed to a mental hospital.
1985 - A federal judge in Norfolk, Virginia, found retired Navy officer Arthur J. Walker guilty of seven counts of spying for the Soviet Union.
1988 - President Ronald Reagan nominated Lauro Cavazos to be secretary of education, the first Hispanic to serve in the Cabinet.
1995 - Jerry Garcia, lead singer and guitarist of the Grateful Dead, died at age 53.
2001 - President George W. Bush approved federal funding for existing lines of embryonic stem cells.
2004 - Terry Nichols was sentenced to 161 consecutive life sentences on state murder charges in the Oklahoma City bombing.
2010 - Former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, 86, the longest serving Republican in the U.S. Senate, was killed in a plane crash in southwestern Alaska.
2011 - Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs was sentenced in San Angelo, Texas, to life in prison for sexually assaulting one of his child brides, and received the maximum 20-year punishment for a separate child sex conviction.
2014 - Michael Brown Jr., an 18-year-old Black man, was shot to death by a police officer following an altercation in Ferguson, Missouri; Brown’s death led to sometimes-violent protests in Ferguson and other U.S. cities, spawning a national “Black Lives Matter” movement.
Birthdays
30 - Alexa Bliss (professional wrestler)
31 - Bill Skarsgard (actor)
31 - Adelaide Kane (actress)
36 - Anna Kendrick (actress)
38 - Ashley Johnson (actress)
45 - Jessica Capshaw (actress)
46 - Rhona Mitra (actress)
48 - Kevin McKidd (actor)
49 - Liz Vassey (actress)
50 - Nikki Schieler Ziering (actress)
51 - Thomas Lennon (actor)
51 - Chris Cuomo (TV host)
51 - Rod Brind'Amour (hockey player/coach)
53 - Eric Bana (actor)
53 - Gillian Anderson (actress)
54 - Deion Sanders (football/baseball player)
57 - Hoda Kotb (TV host)
57 - Brett Hull (hockey player)
63 - Amanda Bearse (actress)
64 - Melanie Griffith (actress)
66 - Doug Williams (football player)
69 - John Cappelletti (football player)
74 - Barbara Mason (singer)
77 - Sam Elliott (actor)
83 - Rod Laver (tennis player)
87 - Cynthia Harris (actress)
93 - Bob Cousy (basketball player)
=======================================
Today in Sports History - August 9
1936 - Track star Jesse Owens became the first American to win four gold medals in one Olympics.
1971 - Satchel Paige is inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1975 - The New Orleans Superdome as officially opened when the Saints played the Houston Oilers in exhibition football. The new Superdome cost $163 million to build.
1981 - Major league baseball teams resumed play at the conclusion of the first mid-season players strike.
1988 - Hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky was traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings.
1990 - The NHL approved the sale of the Minnesota North Stars by George and Gordon Gund. The Gunds were granted the rights to a Bay Area team that could begin play in October 1991. The team was the San Jose Sharks.
2002 - Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants hit his 600th career home run, joining Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays as the fourth player in MLB history to reach that mark.
2012 - Shannon Eastin became the first female to officiate an NFL game when she worked as a line judge in a preseason game between the San Diego Chargers and the Green Bay Packers.
2012 - At the London Olympic Games, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt becomes the first runner to win the both the 100 and 200 meter sprints in back-to-back Olympic Games.
2012 - The United States women's soccer team defeats Japan 2-1 to win the Olympic gold in London.
2016 - At the Rio Games, Michael Phelps earned the 20th and 21st Olympic gold medals of his career as he won the 200-meter butterfly and anchored the United States to victory in the 4x200 freestyle relay.
2020 - Collin Morikawa closed with a 6-under-par 64 to win the PGA Championship in San Francisco, the first major golf tournament held without spectators.
