TODAY IN HISTORY

On Aug. 8, 1911, President William Howard Taft signed a measure raising the number of U.S. representatives from 391 to 433, effective with the next Congress, with a proviso to add two more when

New Mexico and Arizona became states.

In 1963, Britain’s “Great Train Robbery” took place as thieves made off with 2.6 million pounds in banknotes.

Vice President Spiro T. Agnew branded as “damned lies” reports he had taken kickbacks from government contracts in Maryland, and vowed

In 1973,

not to resign — which he ended up doing.

In 1974, President Richard Nixon, facing revelations in the Watergate scandal, announced he would resign the following day.

In 2000, the wreckage of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley, which sank in 1864, was recovered off the South Carolina coast and returned to port.