July 8
Today is the 189th day of 2021, there are 176 days left in the year.
1663 - King Charles II of England granted a charter to Rhode Island.
1776 - The first public reading of the Declaration of Independence was given in Philadelphia.
1777 - Vermont became the first colony to abolish slavery.
1839 - John D. Rockefeller, who founded the Standard Oil Co. and gave more than $500 million to charitable causes, was born.
1853 - An expedition led by Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Yedo Bay, Japan, on a mission to seek diplomatic and trade relations with the Japanese.
1889 - The Wall Street Journal began publication.
1891 - Warren G. Harding married Florence K. DeWolfe in Marion, Ohio.
1911 - Cowgirl “Two-Gun Nan” Aspinwall became the first woman to make a solo trip by horse across the United States, arriving in New York 10 months after departing San Francisco.
1919 - President Woodrow Wilson received a tumultuous welcome in New York City after his return from the Versailles Peace Conference in Paris which brought World War I to an end.
1947 - A New Mexico newspaper, the Roswell Daily Record, quoted officials at Roswell Army Air Field as saying they had recovered a “flying saucer” that crashed onto a ranch; officials then said it was actually a weather balloon. (To this day, there are those who believe what fell to Earth was an alien spaceship carrying extra-terrestrial beings.)
1950 - Gen. Douglas MacArthur was named commander-in-chief of United Nations forces in Korea by President Harry S. Truman. (Truman would remove MacArthur from the post nine months later for insubordination.)
1958 - The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) awarded its first official gold album. It was for the soundtrack to Oklahoma!.
1972 - The Nixon administration announced a deal to sell $750 million in grain to the Soviet Union. (However, the Soviets were also engaged in secretly buying subsidized American grain, resulting in what critics dubbed “The Great Grain Robbery.”)
1975 - President Gerald Ford announced he would seek a second term in office.
1986 - Kurt Waldheim is inaugurated as president of Austria despite controversy over his ties to Nazi war crimes.
1989 - Carlos Saul Menem was inaugurated as president of Argentina in the country’s first transfer of power from one democratically elected civilian leader to another in six decades.
1994 - Kim Il Sung, North Korea's communist leader since 1948, died at age 82.
2004 - Enron founder and former chairman Kenneth Lay pleaded innocent to charges related to the energy company's collapse. (He was convicted, but died while the case was on appeal.)
2011 - Former first lady Betty Ford died in Rancho Mirage, California at age 93.
2011 - The space shuttle Atlantis launches into space for the final time from the Kennedy Space Center. It is the 135th and final flight of the space shuttle program, which started in 1981.
2016 - Ten states (Nebraska, Arkansas, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming) sued the federal government over rules requiring public schools to allow transgender students to use restrooms conforming to their gender identity, joining a dozen other states in the latest fight over LGBT rights. (Nebraska, which led the effort, later asked to drop the lawsuit after the Trump administration ended the protection.)
2019 - Billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein was charged with sexually abusing dozens of underage girls; the newly unsealed federal indictment came more than a decade after he secretly cut a deal with federal prosecutors to dispose of nearly identical allegations. (Epstein was found unresponsive in his jail cell a month later; the medical examiner ruled his death a suicide.)
2020 - Brooks Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection; the 200-year-old company became the latest major clothing retailer to be toppled by the coronavirus pandemic.
Birthdays
23 - Jaden Smith (actor)
23 - Maya Hawke (actress)
27 - Aimee Kelly (actress)
32 - Liz Katz (model)
35 - Jake McDorman (actor)
39 - Sophia Bush (actress)
40 - Lance Gross (actor)
48 - Kathleen Robertson (actress)
51 - Beck (singer)
53 - Michael Weatherly (actor)
53 - Billy Crudup (actor)
54 - Michael B. Silver (actor)
56 - Lee Tergesen (actor)
56 - Corey Parker (actor)
58 - Rocky Carroll (actor)
59 - Joan Osborne (singer)
60 - Toby Keith (country singer)
62 - Robert Knepper (actor)
63 - Kevin Bacon (actor)
70 - Anjelica Huston (actress)
72 - Wolfgang Puck (chef)
73 - Jonelle Allen (actress)
74 - Kim Darby (actress)
77 - Jeffrey Tambor (actor)
86 - Steve Lawrence (singer)
==========================================
Today in Sports History - July 8
1889 - John L. Sullivan defeated Jake Kilrain, in the last championship bare-knuckle fight. The fight lasted 75 rounds.
1946 - Major League Baseball establishes a minimum salary of $5,000.
1953 - Notre Dame announced that the next five years of its football games would be shown in theatres over closed circuit TV.
1970 - Jim Ray Hart (San Francisco Giants) became just the eighth player in major league history to collect six RBIs during a single inning.
1982 - Billy Martin records his 1,000th victory as a major league manager.
1990 - West Germany defeats Argentina 1-0 in Rome to win the World Cup.
2000 - Venus Williams defeated Lindsay Davenport to win her first Grand Slam title, becoming the first Black female Wimbledon champion since Althea Gibson in 1958.
2003 - Dominik Hasek announced that he planned to come out of retirement and rejoin the Detroit Red Wings.
2010 - During an ESPN prime-time special, basketball free agent LeBron James announced he was leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers to join the Miami Heat.
2011 - Ohio State vacated its wins from the 2010 football season, including its share of the Big Ten championship and a victory over Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl, as it responded to the NCAA's investigation of a memorabilia-for-cash scandal.
2014 - Germany sets a World Cup record by defeating Brazil 7-1 in the semifinals to advance to the finals; Miroslav Klose of Germany breaks the tournament scoring record with 16 goals.
2015 - The NFL's Washington Redskins have their trademark vacated on the grounds it may cause offense to Native Americans.
Today is the 189th day of 2021, there are 176 days left in the year.
1663 - King Charles II of England granted a charter to Rhode Island.
1776 - The first public reading of the Declaration of Independence was given in Philadelphia.
1777 - Vermont became the first colony to abolish slavery.
1839 - John D. Rockefeller, who founded the Standard Oil Co. and gave more than $500 million to charitable causes, was born.
1853 - An expedition led by Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Yedo Bay, Japan, on a mission to seek diplomatic and trade relations with the Japanese.
1889 - The Wall Street Journal began publication.
1891 - Warren G. Harding married Florence K. DeWolfe in Marion, Ohio.
1911 - Cowgirl “Two-Gun Nan” Aspinwall became the first woman to make a solo trip by horse across the United States, arriving in New York 10 months after departing San Francisco.
1919 - President Woodrow Wilson received a tumultuous welcome in New York City after his return from the Versailles Peace Conference in Paris which brought World War I to an end.
1947 - A New Mexico newspaper, the Roswell Daily Record, quoted officials at Roswell Army Air Field as saying they had recovered a “flying saucer” that crashed onto a ranch; officials then said it was actually a weather balloon. (To this day, there are those who believe what fell to Earth was an alien spaceship carrying extra-terrestrial beings.)
1950 - Gen. Douglas MacArthur was named commander-in-chief of United Nations forces in Korea by President Harry S. Truman. (Truman would remove MacArthur from the post nine months later for insubordination.)
1958 - The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) awarded its first official gold album. It was for the soundtrack to Oklahoma!.
1972 - The Nixon administration announced a deal to sell $750 million in grain to the Soviet Union. (However, the Soviets were also engaged in secretly buying subsidized American grain, resulting in what critics dubbed “The Great Grain Robbery.”)
1975 - President Gerald Ford announced he would seek a second term in office.
1986 - Kurt Waldheim is inaugurated as president of Austria despite controversy over his ties to Nazi war crimes.
1989 - Carlos Saul Menem was inaugurated as president of Argentina in the country’s first transfer of power from one democratically elected civilian leader to another in six decades.
1994 - Kim Il Sung, North Korea's communist leader since 1948, died at age 82.
2004 - Enron founder and former chairman Kenneth Lay pleaded innocent to charges related to the energy company's collapse. (He was convicted, but died while the case was on appeal.)
2011 - Former first lady Betty Ford died in Rancho Mirage, California at age 93.
2011 - The space shuttle Atlantis launches into space for the final time from the Kennedy Space Center. It is the 135th and final flight of the space shuttle program, which started in 1981.
2016 - Ten states (Nebraska, Arkansas, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming) sued the federal government over rules requiring public schools to allow transgender students to use restrooms conforming to their gender identity, joining a dozen other states in the latest fight over LGBT rights. (Nebraska, which led the effort, later asked to drop the lawsuit after the Trump administration ended the protection.)
2019 - Billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein was charged with sexually abusing dozens of underage girls; the newly unsealed federal indictment came more than a decade after he secretly cut a deal with federal prosecutors to dispose of nearly identical allegations. (Epstein was found unresponsive in his jail cell a month later; the medical examiner ruled his death a suicide.)
2020 - Brooks Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection; the 200-year-old company became the latest major clothing retailer to be toppled by the coronavirus pandemic.
Birthdays
23 - Jaden Smith (actor)
23 - Maya Hawke (actress)
27 - Aimee Kelly (actress)
32 - Liz Katz (model)
35 - Jake McDorman (actor)
39 - Sophia Bush (actress)
40 - Lance Gross (actor)
48 - Kathleen Robertson (actress)
51 - Beck (singer)
53 - Michael Weatherly (actor)
53 - Billy Crudup (actor)
54 - Michael B. Silver (actor)
56 - Lee Tergesen (actor)
56 - Corey Parker (actor)
58 - Rocky Carroll (actor)
59 - Joan Osborne (singer)
60 - Toby Keith (country singer)
62 - Robert Knepper (actor)
63 - Kevin Bacon (actor)
70 - Anjelica Huston (actress)
72 - Wolfgang Puck (chef)
73 - Jonelle Allen (actress)
74 - Kim Darby (actress)
77 - Jeffrey Tambor (actor)
86 - Steve Lawrence (singer)
==========================================
Today in Sports History - July 8
1889 - John L. Sullivan defeated Jake Kilrain, in the last championship bare-knuckle fight. The fight lasted 75 rounds.
1946 - Major League Baseball establishes a minimum salary of $5,000.
1953 - Notre Dame announced that the next five years of its football games would be shown in theatres over closed circuit TV.
1970 - Jim Ray Hart (San Francisco Giants) became just the eighth player in major league history to collect six RBIs during a single inning.
1982 - Billy Martin records his 1,000th victory as a major league manager.
1990 - West Germany defeats Argentina 1-0 in Rome to win the World Cup.
2000 - Venus Williams defeated Lindsay Davenport to win her first Grand Slam title, becoming the first Black female Wimbledon champion since Althea Gibson in 1958.
2003 - Dominik Hasek announced that he planned to come out of retirement and rejoin the Detroit Red Wings.
2010 - During an ESPN prime-time special, basketball free agent LeBron James announced he was leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers to join the Miami Heat.
2011 - Ohio State vacated its wins from the 2010 football season, including its share of the Big Ten championship and a victory over Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl, as it responded to the NCAA's investigation of a memorabilia-for-cash scandal.
2014 - Germany sets a World Cup record by defeating Brazil 7-1 in the semifinals to advance to the finals; Miroslav Klose of Germany breaks the tournament scoring record with 16 goals.
2015 - The NFL's Washington Redskins have their trademark vacated on the grounds it may cause offense to Native Americans.
