July 8
1497 –
Vasco da Gama sets sail on the first direct European voyage to India.
1760 – British forces defeat French forces in the
last naval battle in New France.
1776 – Church bells (possibly including the Liberty Bell) are rung after
John Nixon delivers the first public reading of the
Declaration of Independence of the United States.
1822 –
Chippewas turn over a huge tract of land in Ontario to the United Kingdom.
1898 – The death of crime boss
Soapy Smith, killed in the
Shootout on Juneau Wharf, releases Skagway, Alaska from his iron grip.
1932 – The
Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level of the
Great Depression, closing at 41.22.
1947 – Reports are broadcast that a UFO crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico in what became known as the
Roswell UFO incident.
1954 - Producer
Sam Phillips took an acetate recording of
Elvis Presley singing '
That's All Right' to Memphis radio station
WHBQ DJ Dewey Phillips. He played the song just after 9.30 that evening, the phone lines lit up asking the DJ to play the song again.
1958 - The first Gold record album presented by the
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) was awarded to the soundtrack LP, '
Oklahoma!'.
1960 –
Francis Gary Powers is charged with espionage resulting from his flight over the Soviet Union.
1967 -
The Monkees began a 29-date tour with
The Jimi Hendrix Experience as support act. Hendrix was dropped after six shows after being told his act was not suitable for their
teenybopper audience.
1968 – The
Chrysler wildcat strike begins in Detroit, Michigan.
1969,
Marianne Faithfull collapsed on the set of '
Ned Kelly' after taking a drug overdose. She was admitted to a Sydney Hospital, (she was later dropped from the movie).
1970 – Richard Nixon delivers a special congressional message enunciating
Native American self-determination as official US Indian policy, leading to the
Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975.
1982 – Assassination attempt against Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in Dujail. (Missed it, by
that much.)
1994 –
Kim Jong-il begins to assume supreme leadership of North Korea upon the death of his father,
Kim Il-sung.
2011 –
Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched in the
final mission (STS-135) of the
U.S. Space Shuttle program.
Births
1831 – John Pemberton (invented Coca-Cola); 1838 – Eli Lilly; 1838 – Ferdinand von Zeppelin; 1839 – John D. Rockefeller (founded Standard Oil Company); 1885 – Hugo Boss; 1907 – George W. Romney (invented Mitt); 1908 – Louis Jordan (not Jourdan), Nelson Rockefeller; 1914 – Billy Eckstine; 1918 – Craig Stevens ("Peter Gunn"); 1930 – Jerry Vale; 1934 – Marty Feldman; 1935 – Steve Lawrence; 1944 - Jaimoe Johanson (Allman Bros Band); 1947 – Kim Darby ('Mattie Ross' in "True Grit"); 1948 – Raffi; 1949 – Wolfgang Puck; 1951 – Anjelica Huston; 1952 – Jack Lambert; 1957 – Carlos Cavazo (Quiet Riot, Ratt); 1958 – Kevin Bacon; 1961 – Toby Keith; 1962 – Joan Osborne; 1968 – Billy Crudup, Michael Weatherly ('Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo' on "NCIS"); 1970 – Beck; 1977 – Milo Ventimiglia
Deaths
1695 – Christiaan Huygens; 1822 – Percy Bysshe Shelley; 1988 – Ray Barbuti; 1990 – Howard Duff; 1991 – James Franciscus; 1994 – Kim Il-sung; 1994 – Dick Sargent; 1999 – Pete Conrad (3rd man to walk on the moon (supposedly)); 2006 – June Allyson; 2011 – Betty Ford; 2012 – Ernest Borgnine; 2015 – Ken 'The Snake' Stabler