Today in history: Aug. 8
In 1963, Britain’s “Great Train Robbery” took place as thieves made off with 2.6 million pounds in banknotes.
1911: William Howard Taft
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.
1945: Harry S. Truman
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.
1963: “Great Train Robbery”
In 1963, Britain’s “Great Train Robbery” took place as thieves made off with 2.6 million pounds in banknotes.
1973: Spiro T. Agnew
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.
1974: Richard Nixon
On Aug. 8, 1974, President Richard Nixon, facing damaging new revelations in the Watergate scandal, announced he would resign the following day.
2000: H.L. Hunley
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.
2009: Sonia Sotomayor
In 2009, Sonia Sotomayor was sworn in as the U.S. Supreme Court’s first Hispanic and third female justice.
2012: Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings
Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings of the United States became the first three-time gold medalists in Olympic beach volleyball history, beating Jennifer Kessy and April Ross in the all-American final.
2022: Ahmaud Arbery
In 2022, the white father and son convicted of murder in Ahmaud Arbery’s fatal shooting after they chased the 25-year-old Black man through a Georgia neighborhood were sentenced to life in prison for committing a federal hate crime. The killing in February 2020 had become part of a larger national reckoning over racial injustice.
The European climate monitoring organization has made it official: July 2023 was Earth’s hottest month on record by a wide margin. Here's more on that, plus today's top stories, celebrity birthdays and a look back at this day in history.