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"