July 8 is :
Video Games Day
International Town Crier’s Day
National Milk Chocolate with Almonds Day
1663 – Charles II of England granted a Royal charter to Rhode Island to John Clarke.
NYC authorized first police uniforms in American colonies on July 8, 1693.
1775 – The Olive Branch Petition was signed by the Continental Congress of the Thirteen Colonies. The petition affirmed American loyalty to Great Britain and entreated the king to prevent further conflict.
US State Dept issued 1st American passport on July 8, 1796.
From Today in Science
In 1881, a patron came into Edward Berner’s drug store in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, and sat down at the soda-fountain counter. Since it was the Sabbath, the customer couldn’t have the desirable, but scandalous, flavored soda water. Berner compromised by putting ice cream in a dish and poured over it the chocolate syrup that was previously only served as flavoring in ice-cream sodas. That was an ice cream Sunday! The name became “sundae”, after the day on which Berner served it.
The first issue of The Wall Street Journal was published in 1889.
From Today in Science
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Born 8 Jul 1926; died 24 Aug 2004 at age 78.
Swiss-American psychiatrist who was a leading authority on the psychology of dying. She is best-known for twelve books, beginning with On Death and Dying (1969), in which she proposed that the terminally ill go through five stages in their attitude. These are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and, perhaps, acceptance. The book offers strategies for caregivers. The work grew from a seminar she founded at the Billings Hospital of the University of Chicago where dying patients talked about their thoughts upon the approach of death. The best-selling success of the book led her into a career of clinical practice to the treatment of dying patients of all ages. Her lectures changed institutional attitudes towards the terminally ill.
1960 – Francis Gary Powers was charged with espionage resulting from his flight over the Soviet Union.
1982 – Assassination attempt against Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. The Dujail Massacre refers to the events following this assassination attempt. More than 140 people were sentenced and executed for their alleged involvement in the plot including four people who were mistakenly killed during the executions. Hundreds more were sent into exile and their houses, farms and properties were demolished. The executions in Dujail were the primary charges for which Saddam Hussein was hanged on 30 December 2006.