August 2
1776 - Members of the Second Continental Congress began attaching their signatures to the Declaration of Independence.
1790 - The first United States Census was conducted under the supervision of Thomas Jefferson; a total of 3,929,214 U.S. residents were counted.
1873 - Inventor Andrew S. Hallidie successfully tested a cable car he had designed for the city of San Francisco.
1876 - Frontiersman "Wild Bill" Hickock was shot and killed while playing poker at a saloon in Deadwood, South Dakota by Jack McCall, who was later hanged.
1909 - The first Lincoln penny was minted.
1923 - President Warren G. Harding died after suffering a heart attack in San Francisco at age 57; Vice President Calvin Coolidge then became president.
1934 - German President Paul von Hindenburg died, paving the way for Adolf Hitler's complete takeover.
1939 - Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt urging the creation of an atomic weapons research program.
1943 - PT-109, a torpedo boat commanded by Lt. John F. Kennedy, was sunk off the Solomon Islands during World War II by a Japanese destroyer.
1945 - The Potsdam Conference, in which Allied leaders planned postwar governance of Germany, concluded.
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.)
1985 - Delta Air Lines Flight 191, a Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, crashed while attempting to land at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, killing 137 people.
1990 - The Persian Gulf War broke out when Iraq invaded Kuwait.
2018 - Pope Francis decreed that the death penalty is "inadmissible" under all circumstances and the Catholic Church should campaign to abolish it.
Birthdays
23 - Sophia Mitchell (model)
27 - Austin Theory (professional wrestler)
28 - Simone Manuel (swimmer)
32 - Charli XCX (singer)
34 - Skylar Diggins-Smith (basketball player)
38 - Lily Gladstone (actress)
40 - J.D. Vance (politician)
40 - Britt Nicole (singer)
41 - Nick Diaz (MMA fighter)
47 - Edward Furlong (actor)
48 - Sam Worthington (actor)
54 - Kevin Smith (actor/director)
60 - Mary-Louise Parker (actress)
71 - Butch Patrick (actor)
81 - Kathy Lennon (singer)
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Today in Sports History - August 2
1907 - Future Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson, at age 19, began what would be his 21-year MLB career with the Washington Senators in a 3-2 loss to the Detroit Tigers.
1921 - A jury in Chicago acquitted several former members of the Chicago White Sox and two others of conspiring to defraud the public in the notorious "Black Sox" scandal. (The players were still banned from baseball for life by MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis.)
1938 - Bright yellow baseballs were used in a major league baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the St. Louis Cardinals. It was hoped that the balls would be easier to see.
1960 - The Continental League, a proposed third major league, disbands before ever having contested a game.
1961 - The St. Louis Cardinals of the NFL defeat the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL, 36-7 in an exhibition game in Toronto.
1967 - The New Orleans Saints play their first game in franchise history, a 16-7 exhibition loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
1968 - Ron Hansen (Washington Senators) & Tim Cullen (Chicago White Sox) become the first MLB players to be traded for each other twice in the same season; they had been traded in February in opposite directions.
1979 - The New York Mets purchase contract of outfielder José Cardenal from Philadelphia Phillies between games of a double-header between the two teams.
1982 - Rickey Henderson of the Oakland Athletics becomes the first player in MLB history to steal 100 bases in multiple seasons.
1992 - Tom Seaver, Rollie Fingers, Hal Newhouser and Bill McGowan are inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1996 - The United States men's basketball team, dubbed "Dream Team III," defeated Yugoslavia 95-69 to win the gold medal at the Atlanta Summer Olympic Games. Team members were: Charles Barkley, Grant Hill, Anfernee Hardaway, David Robinson, Scottie Pippen, Mitch Richmond, Reggie Miller, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Shaquille O'Neal, Gary Payton and Hakeem Olajuwon.
2012 - Michael Phelps won his 16th Gold Medal when he won the 200-meter individual medley. With the victory he became the first male swimmer to win the same event in three consecutive Olympics.
