Today in History

Today’s highlight:

On August 8, 1974, President Richard Nixon, facing damaging new revelations in the Watergate scandal, announced he would resign the following day.

On this date:

1815: Napoleon Bonaparte set sail for St. Helena to spend the remainder of his days in exile.

1876: Thomas A. Edison received a patent for his

mimeograph.

1942: During World War II, six Nazi saboteurs who were captured after landing in the U.S. were executed in Washington, D.C.; two others who cooperated with authorities were spared.

1945: President Harry S. Truman signed the U.S. instrument of ratification for the United Nations Charter. The Soviet Union declared war against Japan during World War II.

1968: The Republican national convention in Miami Beach nominated

Richard Nixon for president on the first ballot.

1973: Vice President

Spiro T. Agnew branded as “damned lies” reports he had taken kickbacks from government contracts in Maryland, and vowed not to resign — which he ended up doing.

1993: In Somalia, four U.S. soldiers were killed when a land mine was detonated underneath their vehicle, prompting President Bill Clinton to order Army Rangers to try to capture Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid.

2000: The wreckage of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley, which sank in 1864 after attacking the Union ship Housatonic, was recovered off the South Carolina coast and returned to port.

2002: Saddam Hussein organized a big military parade and then warned “the forces of evil” not to attack Iraq as he sought once more to shift the debate away from world demands that he live up to agreements that ended the Gulf War.

2003: The Boston Roman Catholic archdiocese offered $55 million to settle more than 500 lawsuits stemming from alleged sex abuse by priests. The archdiocese later settled for $85 million.

2008: China opened the Summer Olympic Games with an extravaganza of fireworks and pageantry.

Ten years ago: Sonia Sotomayor was sworn in as the U.S. Supreme Court’s first Hispanic and third female justice.

Five years ago: The U.S. unleashed its first airstrikes against the Islamic State group in northern Iraq amid a worsening humanitarian crisis. Israel and militants from Gaza resumed cross-border attacks, after a three-day truce expired.

One year ago: The United States announced that it would impose new sanctions on Russia for illegally using a chemical weapon in an attempt to kill a former spy and his daughter in Britain.