TODAY IN HISTORY

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Today is Monday, Aug. 8, the 220th day of 2022. There are 145 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Aug. 8, 1974, President Richard Nixon, facing damaging new revelations in the Watergate scandal, announced he would resign the following day.

On this date:

In 1814, during the War of 1812, peace talks between the United States and Britain began in Ghent, Belgium.

In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte set sail for St. Helena to spend the remainder of his days in exile.

In 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 1945, President Harry S. Truman signed the U.S. 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 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 2000, the wreckage of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley, which sank in 1864 after attacking the Union ship Housatonic, was recovered off the South Carolina coast and returned to port.

In 2009, Sonia Sotomayor was sworn in as the U.S. Supreme Court’s first Hispanic and third female justice.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Dustin Hoffman is 85. Actor Connie Stevens is 84. Country singer Phil Balsley (The Statler Brothers) is 83. Actor Larry Wilcox is 75. Actor Keith Carradine is 73. Movie director Martin Brest is 71. Radio-TV personality Robin Quivers is 70. Actor Donny Most is 69. TV personality Deborah Norville is 64. Rock musician The Edge (U2) is 61. Rapper Kool Moe Dee is 60. Rock singer Scott Stapp is 49. Country singer Mark Wills is 49. R&B singer Drew Lachey (98 Degrees) is 46. Tennis player Roger Federer is 41. Britain’s Princess Beatrice of York is 34. New York Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo is 33. Pop singer Shawn Mendes is 24.

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