TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Tuesday, Aug. 2, the 214th day of 2022. There are 151 days left in the year.

ON THIS DATE

IN HISTORY

On Aug. 2, 1923, the 29th president of the United States, Warren G. Harding, died in San Francisco; Vice President Calvin Coolidge became president.

1776 — Members of the Second Continental Congress began attaching their signatures to the Declaration of Independence.

1876 — Frontiersman “Wild Bill” Hickok was shot and killed while playing poker at a saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, by

Jack McCall, who was later hanged.

1922 — Alexander Graham Bell, generally regarded as the inventor of the telephone, died in Nova Scotia, Canada, at age 75.

1939 — Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt urging creation of an atomic weapons research program.

1945 — President Harry S. Truman, Soviet leader Josef Stalin and Britain’s new prime minister, Clement Attlee, concluded the Potsdam conference.

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.)

1985 — One hundred thirty-seven people were killed when Delta Air Lines Flight 191, a Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, crashed while attempting to land at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

1990 — Iraq invaded Kuwait, seizing control of the oil-rich emirate. (The Iraqis were later driven out in Operation Desert Storm.)

Ten years ago — Kofi Annan resigned as peace envoy to Syria, blaming the Syrian government’s intransigence, the growing militancy of Syrian rebels and a divided UN Security Council that he said failed to forcefully back his effort. Five years ago — Former Notre Dame football coach Ara Parseghian died at his home in Granger, Indiana, at the age of 94. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 22,000 for the first time, after stocks spent five months gradually moving higher.

One year ago — The US finally reached President Joe Biden’s goal of getting at least one COVID-19 shot into 70% of American adults — A month late and amid a fierce surge by the delta variant. Louisiana reinstated a mask mandate in all indoor locations, as the state saw the highest per capita COVID-19 growth in the nation. The Biden administration expanded efforts to help at-risk Afghan citizens flee Taliban violence ahead of a US military pullout at the end of the month; more Afghans would be eligible for refugee status in the United States. San Francisco’s iconic cable cars were chiming their bells and rolling again on the city’s hills after being sidelined for 16 months by the pandemic.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Rock musician Garth Hudson (The Band) is 85. Singer Kathy Lennon (The

Lennon Sisters) is 79. Actor Kathryn Harrold is 72. Actor Butch Patrick (TV: “The Munsters”) is 69. Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nevada, is 65. Singer Mojo Nixon is 65. Actor Victoria Jackson is 63. Actor Apollonia is 63. Actor Cynthia Stevenson is 60. Actor Mary-Louise Parker is

58. Rock musician John Stanier is 54. Writer-actor-director Kevin Smith is 52. Actor Jacinda Barrett is 50. Actor Sam Worthington is

46. Actor Edward Furlong is

45. TV meteorologist Dylan Dreyer (TV: “Today”) is 41. Actor Marci Miller is 37. Singer Charli XCX is 30. Actor Hallie Eisenberg is 30.