This day in history
Today is Monday, Aug. 8, the 220th day of 2022. There are 145 days left in the year.
Birthdays: Actor Nita Talbot is 92. Actor Dustin Hoffman is 85. Actor Larry Wilcox is 75. Actor Keith Carradine is 73. Movie director Martin Brest is 71. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is 69. TV personality Deborah Norville is 64. U2 guitarist The Edge is 61. ’N Sync singer JC Chasez is 46. Tennis player Roger Federer is 41. Pop singer Shawn Mendes is 24.
▶In 1814, during the War of 1812, peace talks between the United States and Britain began in Ghent, Belgium.
▶In 1911, President Taft signed a measure raising the number of US 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 1945, President Truman signed the US instrument of ratification for the United Nations Charter. The Soviet Union declared war against Japan during World War II.
▶In 1953, the United States and South Korea initialed a mutual security pact.
▶In 1954, The Boston Globe announced the opening of the first elevated expressway in the United States. Hailed as an engineering marvel and a model of urban planning, the Central Artery incorporated the latest technology. Reporters predicted that a 25-minute commute would be reduced to a mere two minutes. The infrastructure was replaced by the Big Dig.
▶In 1963, Britain’s “Great Train Robbery” took place as thieves made off with 2.6 million pounds in banknotes.
▶In 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.
▶In 1974, President Richard Nixon, facing damaging new revelations in the Watergate scandal, announced he would resign the following day.
▶In 1992, the Queen Elizabeth II ran aground off the Elizabeth Islands in Massachusetts, ripping a 74-foot gash in its double hull. Ferry boats the next day evacuated 1,815 passengers and most of 1,000 crew members before the 963-foot boat — one of the world’s last luxury liners — steamed to Boston for repairs.
▶In 1994, Israel and Jordan opened the first road link between the two once-warring countries.
▶In 2009, Sonia Sotomayor was sworn in as the Supreme Court’s first Hispanic and third female justice.
▶Last year, Taliban fighters seized most of Kunduz city, the capital of a key northern Afghan province, the latest in a series of blows to government forces. The pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics officially came to an end; the closing ceremony was held in an empty stadium, though athletes were still able to gather on the field. Hall of Fame football coach Bobby Bowden, who built one of the most prolific college football programs in history at Florida State, died at his home in Tallahassee, at 91.