July 8

Scott Winters July 8, 2024 1 Comment

A quick look at Today in History, check out some Celebrity Birthdays, and find out what Days of the Year to celebrate.

TODAY IN HISTORY:

1776 – Church bells (and the Liberty Bell) rang after Col. John Nixon delivered the first public reading of the United States Declaration of Independence at Independence Square in Philadelphia, PA.

1865 – C.E. Barnes received a patent for the machine gun.

1879 – The first ship to use electric lights departed from San Francisco, CA.

1881 – Edward Berner, druggist in Two Rivers, WI, poured chocolate syrup on ice cream in a dish to create an ice cream sundae. Prior to this, chocolate syrup had only been used for making ice-cream sodas.

1889 – “The Wall Street Journal” was first published.

1889 – The last bare-knuckle fight championship took place on this date. John L. Sullivan defeated Jake Kilrain in 75 rounds (yes, 75!).

1907 – Florenz Ziegfeld staged his first “Follies” on the roof of the New York Theater in New York, NY.

1932 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached its lowest level of the Great Depression, closing at 41.22.

1948 – The U.S. Air Force accepted its first female recruits into a program called Women of the Air Force (WAF).

1958 – The first gold record album was presented by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The award went to the soundtrack “Oklahoma!”

1969 – The game “Twister” received a patent from the U.S. Patent Office.

1978 – The movie “Foul Play” opened in San Francisco, CA. This was the first movie for “Saturday Night Live” star Chevy Chase.

1985 – “Playboy” and “Penthouse” magazines went on sale that both featured nude pictures of Madonna.

1988 – Stevie Wonder announced he would run for mayor of Detroit in 1992. He never ended up doing so.

1991 – The TV game show “Shop ’til You Drop” debuted.

1992 – The primetime TV soap opera “Melrose Place” premiered on CBS.

2000 – J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” was released. It was the fourth book in the Harry Potter series.

2011 – Former First Lady Betty Ford passed away at the age of 93.

2011 – Space Shuttle Atlantis was launched for the final mission of the Space Shuttle program.

2011 – The movie “Horrible Bosses”, starring Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Colin Farrell, Kevin Spacey, and Jamie Foxx, premiered in theaters.

2016 – The animated film “The Secret Life of Pets” premiered in theaters.

2021 – President Joe Biden announced that the official conclusion of the United States involvement in the War in Afghanistan would be on August 31, 2021.