Today is Saturday, August 8, the 220th day of 2009. There are 145 days left in the year.
1815 _ Napoleon Bonaparte set sail for exile on St. Helena
1876 _ Thomas Edison patents mimeograph
1942 _ Six convicted Nazi saboteurs who landed in U.S. executed in Washington, D.C.
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.
1988 _ Russian troops begin pull out of Afghanistan after 9-year war
1990 _ Iraq annexes Kuwait