Today is Wednesday, August 8, the 221st day of 2012. There are 145 days left in the year.

1609 ― Venetian senate examines Galileo Galilei's telescope

1815 ― Napoleon Bonaparte set sail for exile on St. Helena

1876 ― Thomas Edison patents mimeograph

1929 ― German airship Graf Zeppelin begins a round-the-world flight

1945 ― President Harry S. Truman signs U.N. Charter

1945 ― USSR establishes a communist government in North Korea

1953 ― U.S. and South Korea initial a mutual security pact

1955 ― Geneva conference held to discuss peaceful uses of atomic energy

1974 ― President Richard M. Nixon announced he'd resign his office 12 p.m. 08/09

1988 ― Russian troops begin pull out of Afghanistan after nine-year war