Post by farmgal on Jul 7, 2010 10:26:28 GMT -5
July 8 is the 189th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar.
There are 176 days remaining until the end of the year.
118 days until Election Day Tuesday November 2nd, 2010
853 days until Election Day Tuesday November 6th, 2012
1099 - First Crusade: 15,000 starving Christian soldiers march in a religious procession around Jerusalem as its Muslim defenders look on.
1497 - Vasco da Gama sets sail on first direct European voyage to India.
1579 - Our Lady of Kazan, a holy icon of the Russian Orthodox Church, is discovered underground in the city of Kazan, Tatarstan.
1663 - Charles II of England grants John Clarke a Royal Charter to Rhode Island. Following restoration of the English monarchy, a new charter was issued to the American colony of Rhode Island. It guaranteed religious freedom regardless of 'differences in opinion in matters of religion.'
1680 - The first confirmed tornado in America kills a servant at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1741 Influencing the start of New England's 'Great Awakening,' colonial American theologian Jonathan Edwards preached his classic sermon, 'Sinners in the Hands of an AngryGod,' at Enfield, CT.
1775 - The Olive Branch Petition signed by the Continental Congress of the Thirteen Colonies.
1776 - The Declaration of Independence is read aloud in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the Liberty Bell is rung.
1796 - US State Dept issues 1st American passport
1797 1st US senator (William Blount of Tennessee) expelled by impeachment. He apparently concocted a plan to incite the Creek and Cherokee Indians to aid the British in conquering the Spanish territory of West Florida. A letter he wrote alluding to the plan fell into the hands of President John Adams, who turned it over to the Senate on July 3, 1797. Four days later, on July 7, the United States House of Representatives voted to impeach Blount and on July 8 the Senate voted 25 to 1 to expel him from the Senate.
1800 - The first successful vaccination performed in the U.S. using cowpox serum to prevent smallpox was given by Harvard's Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse upon his five year-old son, Daniel, in Massachusetts. Waterhouse was one of the best educated American physicians of his time. Following the latest claims by Edward Jenner, he imported cowpox vaccine for his son and a servant boy. Waterhouse continued vaccinating with success, but in the rush to follow him, others administered impure vaccine and some people died; there was a backlash. Stressing the necessity of pure vaccine, he continued to promote vaccination and was instrumental in its success in America.
1822 - Chippewas turn over huge tract of land in Ontario to the United Kingdom.
1853 - Commodore Perry sails into Tokyo Bay.
1856 - Charles E. Barnes patents a crank operated machine gun. It was ahead of its time, but similar to other machine guns invented later. Although it was invented before the outbreak of the war, there is no evidence that it was used by either side. (Dr. Richard J. Gatling, a North Carolina farm boy, patented his renouned six-barrel machine gun on November 4, 1862.)
1862 - Theodore R. Timby patented the revolving gun turret.
1873, Anna Nichols of Melrose, Mass., became the first woman U.S. patent examiner.
1874 - The Mounties begin their March West.
1876 - White supremacists kill five Black Republicans in Hamburg, SC.
1881- A patron came into Edward Berner's drug store in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, and sat down at the soda-fountain counter. Since it was the Sabbath, the customer couldn't have the desirable, but scandalous, flavored soda water. Berner compromised by putting ice cream in a dish and poured over it the chocolate syrup that was previously only served as flavoring in ice-cream sodas. That was an ice cream Sunday! The name became "sundae", after the day on which Berner served it.
1889 - The first issue of the Wall Street Journal is published. The "Journal" newspaper primarily covers U.S. and international business and financial news and issues the paper's name comes from Wall Street, the street in New York City which is the heart of the financial district. It has been printed continuously since its founding on July 8, 1889 by Charles Dow, Edward Jones, and Charles Bergstresser.
1889 - John L Sullivan wins by KO in 75 rounds in last bare-knuckle bout
1892 - St. John's, Newfoundland is devastated in the Great Fire of 1892.
1896 - William Jennings Bryan "cross of gold" speech at Dem convention
1898 - The shooting death of crime boss Soapy Smith releases Skagway, Alaska from his iron grip.
1907 Florenz Ziegfeld staged first `Follies' on NY Theater roof
1911 Nan Aspinwall is 1st woman to make solo transcontin. trip by horse.
1923 Harding becomes 1st sitting president to visit Alaska (Metlakahtla)
1932 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level of the Great Depression, bottoming out at 41.22.
1947 - Reports are broadcast that a UFO crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico.
1948 - The United States Air Force accepts its first female recruits into a program called Women in the Air Force (WAF)
1948 - Satchel Paige, 42, debuts in majors pitching 2 scoreless inn for Cleveland.
1948 - The Moscow Conference convened to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the independence of the Russian Orthodox Church from control of the Eastern Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople.
1950 Gen Douglas MacArthur named commander-in-chief, UN
forces in Korea
1950 - The town of York, NE, was deluged with 13.15 inches of rain in 24 hours to establish a state record. (The Weather Channel)
1959 Meeting in Oberlin, OH, the Congregational Christian and the Evangelical and Reformed churches adopted a united statement of faith. (The two groups merged to form the United Church of Christ in 1961.)
1960 - Francis Gary Powers is charged with espionage resulting from his flight over the Soviet Union.
1967 "Windy" by the Association topped the charts.
1967 Billie Jean King concludes Wimbeldon sweep (singles, doubles & mix)
1969 - IBM CICS is made generally available for the 360 mainframe computer.
1970 - Richard Nixon delivers a special congressional message enunciating Native American Self-Determination as official US Indian policy, leading to the Indian Self-Determination Act.
1975 President Ford announced he'll seek Republican nomination for president.
1984 John McEnroe beats Jimmy Connors for Wimbeldon singles
1987 - Lt. Col. Oliver North captured center stage at the Iran-Contra hearings. America's involvement in Nicaragua violated the Boland Amendment, which cut off aid to the contras in 1984. When the scandal was exposed, Oliver North took the fall for the entire Reagan administration. North testified before Congress in the Iran-Contra hearing on July 8, 1987. Accused of violating international law and the U.S. Constitution, North was convicted in 1989 of three federal crimes: aiding in the obstruction of Congress, accepting illegal gratuities and destroying documents related to arms sales to Iran to finance the contra war. He was fined $150,000 and sentenced to 1,200 hours of community service.
1988 - Thirty cities in the north central and northeastern U.S. reported record high temperatures for the date. Beckley, WV, equalled their all-time record with a high of 93 degrees. Afternoon and evening thunderstorms spawned seven tornadoes in Adams and Logan counties of eastern Colorado, and hail caused 2.3 million dollars damage in Adams, Logan and Washington counties. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
1989 - Sixteen cities in the central and western U.S. reported record high temperatures for the date. The high of 103 degrees at Denver, CO, equalled their record for July, and a 110 degree reading at Rapid City, SD, equalled their all-time record high. Denver reported a record five straight days of 100 degree heat, and Scottsbluff, NE, reported a record eight days in a row of 100 degree weather. (The National Weather Summary)
1997 - NATO invites the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland to join the alliance in 1999.
1999 - Allen Lee Davis is executed by electric chair by the state of Florida, the last use of the electric chair for capital punishment in Florida.
Births:
1792 - Lowell Mason, Presbyterian pioneer of congregational singing. He composedover 1,000 hymn tunes, including Bethany ('Nearer, My God, To Thee'), Dennis ('Blest Be theTie That Binds'), and Hamburg ('When I Survey the Wondrous Cross').
1805 Samuel David Gross (died 1889), born nr. Easton, Pa., was a surgeon, teacher of medicine, and author of an influential textbook on surgery and the widely read Elements of Pathological Anatomy (1839). He was a prominent Philadelphia surgeon who pioneered methods for suturing nerves and tendons. Other specialties included operations for bladder stone and intestinal wounds; he invented new techniques and instruments. Later he served as president of the American Medical Association (1847). Thomas Eakins portrayed him in a famous painting, The Clinic of Dr. Gross (1875).
1830 - Frederick William Seward, 6th & 11th United States Assistant Secretary of State (d. 1915)
1839 - John D. Rockefeller, American industrialist and philanthropist (d. 1937)
1906 - Philip Johnson, American architect (d. 2005)
1907 - George W. Romney, American businessman and politician (d. 1995)
1908 - Louis Jordan, American saxophonist (d. 1975)
1908 - Nelson A. Rockefeller, 41st Vice President of the United States (d. 1979)
1917 - Faye Emerson, American actress (d. 1983)
1918 - Paul B. Fay, American businessman and cabinet member in the Kennedy administration (d. 2009)
1926 - Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Swiss-born psychiatrist, leading authority on the psychology of dying. She is best-known for twelve books, beginning with On Death and Dying (1969), in which she proposed that the terminally ill go through five stages in their attitude. These are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and, perhaps, acceptance. The book offers strategies for caregivers. The work grew from a seminar she founded at the Billings Hospital of the University of Chicago where dying patients talked about their thoughts upon the approach of death. The best-selling success of the book led her into a career of clinical practice to the treatment of dying patients of all ages. Her lectures changed institutional attitudes towards the terminally ill. (d. 2004)
1942 - Phil Gramm, American politician, Democratic Congressman (1978–1983), a Republican Congressman (1983–1985) and a Republican Senator from Texas (1985–2002).
1951 - Anjelica Huston, American actress
1952 - Anna Quindlen, American columnist
1958 - Kevin Bacon, American actor
1961 - Toby Keith, American singer
Deaths:
1538 - Diego de Almagro, Spanish explorer (b. 1475)
1689 - Edward Wooster, English Connecticut pioneer (b. 1622)
1721 - Elihu Yale, American benefactor of Yale University (b. 1649)
1826 - Luther Martin, American statesman, one of United States' Founding Fathers, who refused to sign the Constitution because he felt it violated states' rights. He was a leading Anti-Federalist, along with Patrick Henry and George Mason, whose actions helped passage of the Bill of Rights. (b. 1748)
1855 - Sir William Edward Parry, English Arctic explorer (b. 1790)
1887 - Ben Holladay, American Businessman and founder of the Overland Stagecoach Company (b. 1819)
1898 - Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith II (b. 1860) was an American con artist and gangster who had a major hand in the organized criminal operations of Denver, Colorado, Creede, Colorado, and Skagway, Alaska, from 1879 to 1898. He was killed in the famed Shootout on Juneau Wharf.
1905 - Walter Kittredge, American musician (b. 1834) Over his career he wrote over 500 songs, many of them dealing with themes of the American Civil War. His most famous song, Tenting on the Old Camp Ground, was sung by both sides of the war and is known throughout the world.
1957 - Grace Coolidge, First Lady of the United States (b. 1879)
1971 - Charlie James Shavers (b. 1920) was an American swing era jazz trumpet player who played at one time or another with Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Eldridge, Johnny Dodds, Jimmy Noone, Sidney Bechet, Midge Williams and Billie Holiday. He was also an arranger and composer, and one of his compositions, "Undecided", is a jazz standard.
1979 - Robert B. Woodward, American chemist, organic chemist, best-known for his syntheses of complex organic substances, including quinine (1944), cholesterol and cortisone (1951), and vitamin B12 (1971). With the synthesis of chlorophyll, the green plant pigment, he increased knowledge about the molecule that absorbs and transforms the radiant energy of the sun that is important to plant life.He also determined the structure of the peculiar fish poison tetrodotoxin, that has caused numerous fatalities in Japan. Woodward was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1965. (b. 1917)
1986 - Hyman (George) Rickover (born 27 Jan 1900), born in Makow, Russia (now Poland), immigrated to the US (1906) and graduated from the Naval Academy in 1922. He eventually became an Admiral. He is known as the Father of the Nuclear Navy for his leadership to build the atomic-powered submarine, USS Nautilus (1954). He served on active duty with the United States Navy for more than 63 years, receiving exemptions from the mandatory retirement age due to his critical service in the building of the United States Navy's nuclear surface and submarine force.
1999 - Pete Conrad, American astronaut was the third man to walk on the moon during the Apollo 12 mission (14-24 Nov, 1969). He had other experience in space on Gemini 5 (launched 21 Aug 1965, logging a new space endurance record of 8 days), on Gemini 11 (launched 18 Sep 1966, first orbit rendezvous and docking), and the Skylab 2 mission (1973). After service as a U.S. Navy test pilot, Conrad had been selected in 1962 to join NASA's second group of astronauts. On 14 Feb 1996, Conrad was a crew member for a record-breaking flight around the world in a Lear jet. He died at age 69 from internal injuries after he crashed on his motorcycle (b. 1930)
2008 - John Templeton, British businessman and philanthropist. In 2005, he wrote a brief memorandum predicting that within five years there would be financial chaos in the world. It was eventually made public in 2010 (b. 1912)
Christian Feast Day:
Abda and Sabas
Auspicius of Trier
Grimbald, abbot, confessor
Kilian, Totnan, and Colman
Procopius of Scythopolis
Theobald of Marly
Sunniva and companions
Local holiday:
Soapy Smith Wake (Skagway)
www.weatherforyou.com/cgi-bin/weather_history/today2S.pl
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/7/8
www.amug.org/~jpaul/jul08.html
www.todayinsci.com/7/7_08.htm
www.scopesys.com/cgi-bin/today2.cgi
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_8
daysuntil.com/Election-Day/index.html
There are 176 days remaining until the end of the year.
118 days until Election Day Tuesday November 2nd, 2010
853 days until Election Day Tuesday November 6th, 2012
1099 - First Crusade: 15,000 starving Christian soldiers march in a religious procession around Jerusalem as its Muslim defenders look on.
1497 - Vasco da Gama sets sail on first direct European voyage to India.
1579 - Our Lady of Kazan, a holy icon of the Russian Orthodox Church, is discovered underground in the city of Kazan, Tatarstan.
1663 - Charles II of England grants John Clarke a Royal Charter to Rhode Island. Following restoration of the English monarchy, a new charter was issued to the American colony of Rhode Island. It guaranteed religious freedom regardless of 'differences in opinion in matters of religion.'
1680 - The first confirmed tornado in America kills a servant at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1741 Influencing the start of New England's 'Great Awakening,' colonial American theologian Jonathan Edwards preached his classic sermon, 'Sinners in the Hands of an AngryGod,' at Enfield, CT.
1775 - The Olive Branch Petition signed by the Continental Congress of the Thirteen Colonies.
1776 - The Declaration of Independence is read aloud in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the Liberty Bell is rung.
On this day in 1776, a 2,000-pound copper-and-tin bell now known as the “Liberty Bell” rings out from the tower of the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall) in Philadelphia, summoning citizens to the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence. Four days earlier, the historic document had been adopted by delegates to the Continental Congress, but the bell did not ring to announce the issuing of the document until the Declaration of Independence returned from the printer on July 8.www.history.com/this-day-in-history/liberty-bell-tolls-to-announce-declaration-of-independence
In 1751, to commemorate the 50-year anniversary of Pennsylvania's original constitution, the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly ordered the bell to be constructed. After being cracked during a test, and then recast twice, the bell was hung from the State House steeple in June 1753. Rung to call the Pennsylvania Assembly together and to summon people for special announcements and events, it was also rung on important occasions, such as King George III’s 1761 ascension to the British throne and, in 1765, to call the people together to discuss Parliament's controversial Stamp Act. With the outbreak of the American Revolution in April 1775, the bell was rung to announce the battles of Lexington and Concord. Its most famous tolling, however, was on July 8, 1776, when it summoned Philadelphia citizens for the first reading of the Declaration of Independence.
As the British advanced toward Philadelphia in the fall of 1777, the bell was removed from the city and hidden in Allentown to save it from being melted down by the British and used to make cannons. After the British defeat in 1781, the bell was returned to Philadelphia, which served as the nation's capital from 1790 to 1800. In addition to marking important events, the bell tolled annually to celebrate George Washington's birthday on February 22 and Independence Day on July 4. The name "Liberty Bell" was first coined in an 1839 poem in an abolitionist pamphlet.
1796 - US State Dept issues 1st American passport
1797 1st US senator (William Blount of Tennessee) expelled by impeachment. He apparently concocted a plan to incite the Creek and Cherokee Indians to aid the British in conquering the Spanish territory of West Florida. A letter he wrote alluding to the plan fell into the hands of President John Adams, who turned it over to the Senate on July 3, 1797. Four days later, on July 7, the United States House of Representatives voted to impeach Blount and on July 8 the Senate voted 25 to 1 to expel him from the Senate.
1800 - The first successful vaccination performed in the U.S. using cowpox serum to prevent smallpox was given by Harvard's Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse upon his five year-old son, Daniel, in Massachusetts. Waterhouse was one of the best educated American physicians of his time. Following the latest claims by Edward Jenner, he imported cowpox vaccine for his son and a servant boy. Waterhouse continued vaccinating with success, but in the rush to follow him, others administered impure vaccine and some people died; there was a backlash. Stressing the necessity of pure vaccine, he continued to promote vaccination and was instrumental in its success in America.
1822 - Chippewas turn over huge tract of land in Ontario to the United Kingdom.
1853 - Commodore Perry sails into Tokyo Bay.
Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, representing the U.S. government, sails into Tokyo Bay, Japan, with a squadron of four vessels. For a time, Japanese officials refused to speak with Perry, but under threat of attack by the superior American ships they accepted letters from President Millard Fillmore, making the United States the first Western nation to establish relations with Japan since it had been declared closed to foreigners two centuries before. Only the Dutch and the Chinese were allowed to continue trade with Japan after 1639, but this trade was restricted and confined to the island of Dejima at Nagasaki.www.history.com/this-day-in-history/commodore-perry-sails-into-tokyo-bay
After giving Japan time to consider the establishment of external relations, Commodore Perry returned to Tokyo with nine ships in March 1854. On March 31, he signed the Treaty of Kanagawa with the Japanese government, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade and permitting the establishment of a U.S. consulate in Japan. In April 1860, the first Japanese diplomats to visit a foreign power in over 200 years reached Washington, D.C., and remained in the U.S. capital for several weeks, discussing expansion of trade with the United States. Treaties with other Western powers followed soon after, contributing to the collapse of the shogunate and ultimately the modernization of Japan.
1856 - Charles E. Barnes patents a crank operated machine gun. It was ahead of its time, but similar to other machine guns invented later. Although it was invented before the outbreak of the war, there is no evidence that it was used by either side. (Dr. Richard J. Gatling, a North Carolina farm boy, patented his renouned six-barrel machine gun on November 4, 1862.)
1862 - Theodore R. Timby patented the revolving gun turret.
1873, Anna Nichols of Melrose, Mass., became the first woman U.S. patent examiner.
1874 - The Mounties begin their March West.
1876 - White supremacists kill five Black Republicans in Hamburg, SC.
1881- A patron came into Edward Berner's drug store in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, and sat down at the soda-fountain counter. Since it was the Sabbath, the customer couldn't have the desirable, but scandalous, flavored soda water. Berner compromised by putting ice cream in a dish and poured over it the chocolate syrup that was previously only served as flavoring in ice-cream sodas. That was an ice cream Sunday! The name became "sundae", after the day on which Berner served it.
1889 - The first issue of the Wall Street Journal is published. The "Journal" newspaper primarily covers U.S. and international business and financial news and issues the paper's name comes from Wall Street, the street in New York City which is the heart of the financial district. It has been printed continuously since its founding on July 8, 1889 by Charles Dow, Edward Jones, and Charles Bergstresser.
1889 - John L Sullivan wins by KO in 75 rounds in last bare-knuckle bout
1892 - St. John's, Newfoundland is devastated in the Great Fire of 1892.
1896 - William Jennings Bryan "cross of gold" speech at Dem convention
1898 - The shooting death of crime boss Soapy Smith releases Skagway, Alaska from his iron grip.
1907 Florenz Ziegfeld staged first `Follies' on NY Theater roof
1911 Nan Aspinwall is 1st woman to make solo transcontin. trip by horse.
1923 Harding becomes 1st sitting president to visit Alaska (Metlakahtla)
1932 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level of the Great Depression, bottoming out at 41.22.
1947 - Reports are broadcast that a UFO crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico.
1948 - The United States Air Force accepts its first female recruits into a program called Women in the Air Force (WAF)
1948 - Satchel Paige, 42, debuts in majors pitching 2 scoreless inn for Cleveland.
1948 - The Moscow Conference convened to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the independence of the Russian Orthodox Church from control of the Eastern Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople.
1950 Gen Douglas MacArthur named commander-in-chief, UN
forces in Korea
1950 - The town of York, NE, was deluged with 13.15 inches of rain in 24 hours to establish a state record. (The Weather Channel)
1959 Meeting in Oberlin, OH, the Congregational Christian and the Evangelical and Reformed churches adopted a united statement of faith. (The two groups merged to form the United Church of Christ in 1961.)
1960 - Francis Gary Powers is charged with espionage resulting from his flight over the Soviet Union.
1967 "Windy" by the Association topped the charts.
1967 Billie Jean King concludes Wimbeldon sweep (singles, doubles & mix)
1969 - IBM CICS is made generally available for the 360 mainframe computer.
1970 - Richard Nixon delivers a special congressional message enunciating Native American Self-Determination as official US Indian policy, leading to the Indian Self-Determination Act.
1975 President Ford announced he'll seek Republican nomination for president.
1984 John McEnroe beats Jimmy Connors for Wimbeldon singles
1987 - Lt. Col. Oliver North captured center stage at the Iran-Contra hearings. America's involvement in Nicaragua violated the Boland Amendment, which cut off aid to the contras in 1984. When the scandal was exposed, Oliver North took the fall for the entire Reagan administration. North testified before Congress in the Iran-Contra hearing on July 8, 1987. Accused of violating international law and the U.S. Constitution, North was convicted in 1989 of three federal crimes: aiding in the obstruction of Congress, accepting illegal gratuities and destroying documents related to arms sales to Iran to finance the contra war. He was fined $150,000 and sentenced to 1,200 hours of community service.
1988 - Thirty cities in the north central and northeastern U.S. reported record high temperatures for the date. Beckley, WV, equalled their all-time record with a high of 93 degrees. Afternoon and evening thunderstorms spawned seven tornadoes in Adams and Logan counties of eastern Colorado, and hail caused 2.3 million dollars damage in Adams, Logan and Washington counties. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
1989 - Sixteen cities in the central and western U.S. reported record high temperatures for the date. The high of 103 degrees at Denver, CO, equalled their record for July, and a 110 degree reading at Rapid City, SD, equalled their all-time record high. Denver reported a record five straight days of 100 degree heat, and Scottsbluff, NE, reported a record eight days in a row of 100 degree weather. (The National Weather Summary)
1997 - NATO invites the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland to join the alliance in 1999.
1999 - Allen Lee Davis is executed by electric chair by the state of Florida, the last use of the electric chair for capital punishment in Florida.
Births:
1792 - Lowell Mason, Presbyterian pioneer of congregational singing. He composedover 1,000 hymn tunes, including Bethany ('Nearer, My God, To Thee'), Dennis ('Blest Be theTie That Binds'), and Hamburg ('When I Survey the Wondrous Cross').
1805 Samuel David Gross (died 1889), born nr. Easton, Pa., was a surgeon, teacher of medicine, and author of an influential textbook on surgery and the widely read Elements of Pathological Anatomy (1839). He was a prominent Philadelphia surgeon who pioneered methods for suturing nerves and tendons. Other specialties included operations for bladder stone and intestinal wounds; he invented new techniques and instruments. Later he served as president of the American Medical Association (1847). Thomas Eakins portrayed him in a famous painting, The Clinic of Dr. Gross (1875).
1830 - Frederick William Seward, 6th & 11th United States Assistant Secretary of State (d. 1915)
1839 - John D. Rockefeller, American industrialist and philanthropist (d. 1937)
1906 - Philip Johnson, American architect (d. 2005)
1907 - George W. Romney, American businessman and politician (d. 1995)
1908 - Louis Jordan, American saxophonist (d. 1975)
1908 - Nelson A. Rockefeller, 41st Vice President of the United States (d. 1979)
1917 - Faye Emerson, American actress (d. 1983)
1918 - Paul B. Fay, American businessman and cabinet member in the Kennedy administration (d. 2009)
1926 - Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Swiss-born psychiatrist, leading authority on the psychology of dying. She is best-known for twelve books, beginning with On Death and Dying (1969), in which she proposed that the terminally ill go through five stages in their attitude. These are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and, perhaps, acceptance. The book offers strategies for caregivers. The work grew from a seminar she founded at the Billings Hospital of the University of Chicago where dying patients talked about their thoughts upon the approach of death. The best-selling success of the book led her into a career of clinical practice to the treatment of dying patients of all ages. Her lectures changed institutional attitudes towards the terminally ill. (d. 2004)
1942 - Phil Gramm, American politician, Democratic Congressman (1978–1983), a Republican Congressman (1983–1985) and a Republican Senator from Texas (1985–2002).
1951 - Anjelica Huston, American actress
1952 - Anna Quindlen, American columnist
1958 - Kevin Bacon, American actor
1961 - Toby Keith, American singer
Deaths:
1538 - Diego de Almagro, Spanish explorer (b. 1475)
1689 - Edward Wooster, English Connecticut pioneer (b. 1622)
1721 - Elihu Yale, American benefactor of Yale University (b. 1649)
1826 - Luther Martin, American statesman, one of United States' Founding Fathers, who refused to sign the Constitution because he felt it violated states' rights. He was a leading Anti-Federalist, along with Patrick Henry and George Mason, whose actions helped passage of the Bill of Rights. (b. 1748)
1855 - Sir William Edward Parry, English Arctic explorer (b. 1790)
1887 - Ben Holladay, American Businessman and founder of the Overland Stagecoach Company (b. 1819)
1898 - Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith II (b. 1860) was an American con artist and gangster who had a major hand in the organized criminal operations of Denver, Colorado, Creede, Colorado, and Skagway, Alaska, from 1879 to 1898. He was killed in the famed Shootout on Juneau Wharf.
1905 - Walter Kittredge, American musician (b. 1834) Over his career he wrote over 500 songs, many of them dealing with themes of the American Civil War. His most famous song, Tenting on the Old Camp Ground, was sung by both sides of the war and is known throughout the world.
1957 - Grace Coolidge, First Lady of the United States (b. 1879)
1971 - Charlie James Shavers (b. 1920) was an American swing era jazz trumpet player who played at one time or another with Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Eldridge, Johnny Dodds, Jimmy Noone, Sidney Bechet, Midge Williams and Billie Holiday. He was also an arranger and composer, and one of his compositions, "Undecided", is a jazz standard.
1979 - Robert B. Woodward, American chemist, organic chemist, best-known for his syntheses of complex organic substances, including quinine (1944), cholesterol and cortisone (1951), and vitamin B12 (1971). With the synthesis of chlorophyll, the green plant pigment, he increased knowledge about the molecule that absorbs and transforms the radiant energy of the sun that is important to plant life.He also determined the structure of the peculiar fish poison tetrodotoxin, that has caused numerous fatalities in Japan. Woodward was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1965. (b. 1917)
1986 - Hyman (George) Rickover (born 27 Jan 1900), born in Makow, Russia (now Poland), immigrated to the US (1906) and graduated from the Naval Academy in 1922. He eventually became an Admiral. He is known as the Father of the Nuclear Navy for his leadership to build the atomic-powered submarine, USS Nautilus (1954). He served on active duty with the United States Navy for more than 63 years, receiving exemptions from the mandatory retirement age due to his critical service in the building of the United States Navy's nuclear surface and submarine force.
1999 - Pete Conrad, American astronaut was the third man to walk on the moon during the Apollo 12 mission (14-24 Nov, 1969). He had other experience in space on Gemini 5 (launched 21 Aug 1965, logging a new space endurance record of 8 days), on Gemini 11 (launched 18 Sep 1966, first orbit rendezvous and docking), and the Skylab 2 mission (1973). After service as a U.S. Navy test pilot, Conrad had been selected in 1962 to join NASA's second group of astronauts. On 14 Feb 1996, Conrad was a crew member for a record-breaking flight around the world in a Lear jet. He died at age 69 from internal injuries after he crashed on his motorcycle (b. 1930)
2008 - John Templeton, British businessman and philanthropist. In 2005, he wrote a brief memorandum predicting that within five years there would be financial chaos in the world. It was eventually made public in 2010 (b. 1912)
Christian Feast Day:
Abda and Sabas
Auspicius of Trier
Grimbald, abbot, confessor
Kilian, Totnan, and Colman
Procopius of Scythopolis
Theobald of Marly
Sunniva and companions
Local holiday:
Soapy Smith Wake (Skagway)
www.weatherforyou.com/cgi-bin/weather_history/today2S.pl
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/7/8
www.amug.org/~jpaul/jul08.html
www.todayinsci.com/7/7_08.htm
www.scopesys.com/cgi-bin/today2.cgi
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_8
daysuntil.com/Election-Day/index.html