Today is Saturday, August 9, the 222nd day of 2008. There are 144 days left in the year.
480 B.C. _ Persia defeats Spartan king Leonidas at Thermopylae
1786 _ First ascent of Mt. Blanc
1849 _ Hungarian Republic crushed by Austria and Russia
1854 _ Henry David Thoreau publishes ``Walden"
1936 _ Jesse Owens wins fourth gold medal of Berlin Olympics
1942 _ British arrests Indian nationalist Mohandas K. Gandhi
1945 _ U.S. drops second atomic bomb ``Fat Man" on Japan destroys part of Nagasaki
1965 _ Singapore gains independence from Malaysia (National Day)
1974 _ Richard Nixon resigns presidency, V.P. Gerald Ford becomes 38th president
1992 _ 25th Olympic Summer games close in Barcelona, Spain