TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS WEDNESDAY, AUG. 8, the 220th day of 2018. There are 145 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1974, President Richard Nixon announced he would resign the following day.
In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte set sail for St. Helena to spend the remainder of his days in exile.
In 1911, President William Howard Taft signed a measure raising the number of U.S. representatives from 391 to 433, with a proviso to add two more when New Mexico and Arizona became states.
In 1942, six Nazi saboteurs captured after landing in the U.S. were executed in Washington, D.C.; two others were spared.
In 1945, President Harry S. Truman signed the ratification for the United Nations Charter. The Soviet Union declared war against Japan.
In 1953, the United States and South Korea initialed a mutual security pact.
In 1968, the Republican national convention in Miami Beach nominated Richard Nixon for president on the first ballot. In 1993, in Somalia, four U.S. soldiers were killed by a land mine detonated under their vehicle, prompting President Bill Clinton to order the capture of Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid.
In 2002, Saddam Hussein warned “the forces of evil” not to attack Iraq as he sought to shift debate away from world demands that he live up to agreements that ended the Gulf War.
In 2009, Sonia Sotomayor was sworn in as the U.S. Supreme Court’s first Hispanic and third female justice.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Dustin Hoffman is 81. Actress Connie Stevens is 80. Actor Keith Carradine is 69. Rock musician Dennis Drew (10,000 Maniacs) is 61. Actor-singer Harry Crosby is 60. Rock musician The Edge (U2) is 57. Rock musician Tom Linton (Jimmy Eat World) is 43. Singer JC Chasez (‘N Sync) and rhythm-and-blues singer Drew Lachey (98 Degrees) are 42. Rhythmand-blues singer Marsha Ambrosius and Actress Lindsay Sloane are 41. Actress Countess Vaughn is 40. Actor Michael Urie is 38. Tennis player Roger Federer is 37. Actress Jackie Cruz (TV: “Orange is the New Black”) is 34. Britain’s Princess Beatrice of York is 30. Pop singer Shawn Mendes is 20. Actress Bebe Wood (TV: “The Real O’Neals”) is 17.