August 2
1776 - Members of the Second Continental Congress began attaching their signatures to the Declaration of Independence.
1873 - Inventor Andrew S. Hallidie successfully tested a cable car he had designed for the city of San Francisco.
1876 - Frontiersman "Wild Bill" Hickok 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.
1922 - Alexander Graham Bell, generally regarded as the inventor of the telephone, died in Nova Scotia, Canada at age 75.
1923 - Warren G. Harding, the 29th president of the United States (1921-1923), died in San Francisco at age 57 from a heart attack; Vice President Calvin Coolidge took the oath of office to become the 30th president of the United States.
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, the future president of the United States, was sunk off the Solomon Islands by a Japanese destroyer during World War II.
1945 - The Potsdam Conference, in which Allied leaders planned the postwar governance of Germany, ended.
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 - Iraq invaded Kuwait, seizing control of the oil-rich emirate. (The Iraqis were later driven out by the U.S. in Operation Desert Storm.)
2013 - The United States issued an extraordinary global travel warning to Americans about the threat of an al-Qaida attack and closed down 21 embassies and consulates across the Muslim world for the weekend.
2018 - Pope Francis decreed that the death penalty is "inadmissible" under all circumstances and the Catholic Church should campaign to abolish it. The Vatican said that Francis had amended the Catechism of the Catholic Church — the compilation of official Catholic teaching — to say that capital punishment can never be sanctioned because it constitutes an "attack" on the dignity of human beings.
2018 - Apple became the world's first publicly-traded company to be valued at $1 trillion.
2022 - U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan, becoming the highest-ranking American official in 25 years to visit the self-ruled island claimed by China, which quickly announced that would will conduct military maneuvers in retaliation for her presence.
Birthdays
22 - Sophia Mitchell (model)
31 - Hallie Eisenberg (actress)
31 - Charli XCX (singer)
32 - Skyler Day (actress)
33 - Skylar Diggins (basketball player)
38 - Marci Miller (actress)
39 - Britt Nicole (singer)
46 - Edward Furlong (actor)
47 - Sam Worthington (actor)
48 - Isabel Macedo (actress)
51 - Jacinda Barrett (actress)
53 - Kevin Smith (actor/director)
59 - Mary-Louise Parker (actress)
61 - Cynthia Stevenson (actress)
64 - Victoria Jackson (actress)
70 - Butch Patrick (actor)
73 - Kathryn Harrold (actress)
78 - Joanna Cassidy (actress)
80 - Kathy Lennon (singer)
=========================================
Today in Sports History - August 2
1907 - Legendary pitcher Walter Johnson, age 19, begins his 21-year MLB career.
1921 - A jury in Chicago acquitted several former members of the Chicago White Sox baseball team and two others of conspiring to defraud the public in the notorious "Black Sox" scandal, in which they were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series.
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.
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 - Oakland Athletics outfielder Rickey Henderson becomes the first player in the modern era of MLB to steal 100 bases in two different seasons.
1992 - Tom Seaver, Rollie Fingers, Hal Newhouser and Bill McGowan are inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
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.
1776 - Members of the Second Continental Congress began attaching their signatures to the Declaration of Independence.
1873 - Inventor Andrew S. Hallidie successfully tested a cable car he had designed for the city of San Francisco.
1876 - Frontiersman "Wild Bill" Hickok 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.
1922 - Alexander Graham Bell, generally regarded as the inventor of the telephone, died in Nova Scotia, Canada at age 75.
1923 - Warren G. Harding, the 29th president of the United States (1921-1923), died in San Francisco at age 57 from a heart attack; Vice President Calvin Coolidge took the oath of office to become the 30th president of the United States.
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, the future president of the United States, was sunk off the Solomon Islands by a Japanese destroyer during World War II.
1945 - The Potsdam Conference, in which Allied leaders planned the postwar governance of Germany, ended.
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 - Iraq invaded Kuwait, seizing control of the oil-rich emirate. (The Iraqis were later driven out by the U.S. in Operation Desert Storm.)
2013 - The United States issued an extraordinary global travel warning to Americans about the threat of an al-Qaida attack and closed down 21 embassies and consulates across the Muslim world for the weekend.
2018 - Pope Francis decreed that the death penalty is "inadmissible" under all circumstances and the Catholic Church should campaign to abolish it. The Vatican said that Francis had amended the Catechism of the Catholic Church — the compilation of official Catholic teaching — to say that capital punishment can never be sanctioned because it constitutes an "attack" on the dignity of human beings.
2018 - Apple became the world's first publicly-traded company to be valued at $1 trillion.
2022 - U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan, becoming the highest-ranking American official in 25 years to visit the self-ruled island claimed by China, which quickly announced that would will conduct military maneuvers in retaliation for her presence.
Birthdays
22 - Sophia Mitchell (model)
31 - Hallie Eisenberg (actress)
31 - Charli XCX (singer)
32 - Skyler Day (actress)
33 - Skylar Diggins (basketball player)
38 - Marci Miller (actress)
39 - Britt Nicole (singer)
46 - Edward Furlong (actor)
47 - Sam Worthington (actor)
48 - Isabel Macedo (actress)
51 - Jacinda Barrett (actress)
53 - Kevin Smith (actor/director)
59 - Mary-Louise Parker (actress)
61 - Cynthia Stevenson (actress)
64 - Victoria Jackson (actress)
70 - Butch Patrick (actor)
73 - Kathryn Harrold (actress)
78 - Joanna Cassidy (actress)
80 - Kathy Lennon (singer)
=========================================
Today in Sports History - August 2
1907 - Legendary pitcher Walter Johnson, age 19, begins his 21-year MLB career.
1921 - A jury in Chicago acquitted several former members of the Chicago White Sox baseball team and two others of conspiring to defraud the public in the notorious "Black Sox" scandal, in which they were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series.
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.
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 - Oakland Athletics outfielder Rickey Henderson becomes the first player in the modern era of MLB to steal 100 bases in two different seasons.
1992 - Tom Seaver, Rollie Fingers, Hal Newhouser and Bill McGowan are inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
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.
