Today In History

Today is Wednesday, Aug. 2, the 214th day of 2017. There are 151 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

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

ON THIS DATE

› 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.

› 1923: The 29th president of the United States, Warren G. Harding, died in San Francisco; Vice President Calvin Coolidge became president.

› 1939: Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt urging creation of an atomic weapons research program. President Roosevelt signed the Hatch Act, which prohibited civil service employees from taking an active part in political campaigns.

› 1967: The crime drama “In the Heat of the Night,” starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger, premiered in New York.

› 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.)

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

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Actor Nehemiah Persoff is 98. Former Sen. Paul Laxalt, R-Nev., is 95. Rock musician Garth Hudson (The Band) is 80. Singer Kathy Lennon (The Lennon Sisters) is 74. Actor Max Wright is 74. Actress Joanna Cassidy is 72. Actress Kathryn Harrold is 67. Actor Butch Patrick (TV: “The Munsters”) is 64. Rock music producer/drummer Butch Vig (Garbage) is 62. Singer Mojo Nixon is 60. Actress Victoria Jackson is 58. Actress Apollonia is 58. Actress Cynthia Stevenson is 55. Actress Mary-Louise Parker is 53. Rock musician John Stanier is 49. Writer-actor-director Kevin Smith is 47. Actress Jacinda Barrett is 45. Actor Sam Worthington is 41. Figure skater Michael Weiss is 41. Actor Edward Furlong is 40. Rock musician Devon Glenn is 37. TV meteorologist Dylan Dreyer (TV: “Today”) is 36. Singer Charli XCX is 25. Actress Hallie Eisenberg is 25.