TUESDAY, AUGUST 5, 2008

Today is Tuesday, August 5, the 218th day of 2008. There are 148 days left in the year.

1583 _ Gilbert claims Newfoundland (first English colony in North America)

1772 _ First partition of Poland, between Austria, Prussia and Russia

1926 _ Houdini stays in a coffin under water for one hour

1945 _ Atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima (Aug. 6 in Japan)

1953 _ Operation ``Big Switch" Korean War prisoner exchanged at Panmunjeom

1962 _ Nelson Mandela arrested for incitement and illegally leaving S. Africa

1964 _ U.S. begins bombing North Vietnam

1966 _ Martin Luther King Jr. stoned during Chicago march

1969 _ Mariner 7 flies past Mars

1972 _ Moody Blues release ``Nights in White Satin"