on this day 8/8 1945 – The United Nations Charter was signed by U.S. President Truman.
1356 – Edward "the Black Prince" began a raid north from Aquitaine.
1815 – Napoleon Bonaparte set sail for St. Helena, in the South Atlantic. The remainder of his life was spent there in exile.
1844 – After the killing of Joseph Smith on June 27, Bringham Young was chosen to lead the Mormons.
1876 – Thomas Edison received a patent for the mimeograph. The mimeograph was a "method of preparing autographic stencils for printing."
1899 – The refrigerator was patented by A.T. Marshall.
1900 – In Boston, the first Davis Cup series began. The U.S. team defeated Great Britain three matches to zero.
1911 – The number of representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives was established at 435. There was one member of Congress for every 211,877 residents.
1940 – The German Luftwaffe began a series of daylight air raids on Great Britain.
1945 – The United Nations Charter was signed by U.S. President Truman.
1945 – During World War II, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan.
1953 – The U.S. and South Korea initiated a mutual security pact.
1956 – Japan launched an oil tanker that was 780 feet long and weighed 84,730 tons. It was the largest oil tanker in the world.
1966 – Michael DeBakey became the first surgeon to install an artificial heart pump in a patient.
1974 – U.S. President Nixon announced that he would resign the following day.
1978 – The U.S. launched Pioneer Venus II, which carried scientific probes to study the atmosphere of Venus.
1988 – It was announced that a cease-fire between Iraq and Iran had begun.
1989 – The space shuttle Columbia took off from Cape Canaveral, FL. The trip was said to be a secret five-day military mission.
1990 – American forces began positioning in Saudia Arabia.
1991 – John McCarthy, a British TV producer, was released by his Lebanese kidnappers. He had been held captive for more than five years. A rival group abducted Jerome Leyraud in retaliation and threatened to kill him if any more hostages were released.
1991 – The U.N. Security Council approved North and South Korea for membership.
1992 – The "Dream Team" clinched the gold medal at the Barcelona Summer Olympics. The U.S. basketball team beat Croatia 117-85.
1994 – The first road link between Israel and Jordan opened.
1994 – Representatives from China and Taiwan signed a cooperation agreement.
1995 – Saddam Hussein's two eldest daughters, their husbands, and several senior army officers defected.
1999 – Wade Boggs (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) got his 3,000th hit of his major league baseball career.
2000 – The submarine H.L. Hunley was raised from ocean bottom after 136 years. The sub had been lost during an attack on the U.S.S. Housatonic in 1864. The Hunley was the first submarine in history to sink a warship.
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