It happened on a… August 8

2018

Academy of Motion Pictures reveals new “Popular Film” category for the Oscars.

2008

IXXX Summer Olympic Games open in Beijing, China.

1992

The original US ‘Dream Team’ wins the basketball gold at the Barcelona Olympics 117-85 over Croatia; features superstars Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Scotty Pippen, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing.

Metallica band member James Hetfield suffers second and third-degree burns during a pyrotechnics explosion on stage at Olympic Stadium, Montreal.

1990

Pete Rose begins 5-ms prison term at Marion (IL) Federal prison camp.

1974

President Richard Nixon, in a nationwide television address, announces his resignation from the office of the President of the United States effective noon the next day.

1966

Michael DeBakey became the first surgeon to install an artificial heart pump in a patient.

1955

Fidel Castro forms the “26th of July Movement”, a Cuban vanguard revolutionary organization.

1929

German airship Graf Zeppelin begins a round-the-world flight.

1900

In Boston, the first Davis Cup series began. The U.S. team defeated Great Britain three matches to zero.

1899

The refrigerator was patented by A.T. Marshall.

1641

Jeanne Mance arrives in New France; the following Spring go up river to found Ville Marie (Montreal), where she also founds the Hôtel Dieu de Montréal.