Today is Monday, August 8, the 220th day of 2011. There are 145 days left in the year.
1609 ― Venetian senate examines Galileo Galilei's telescope
1709 ― First known ascent in hot-air balloon, Bartolomeu de Gusmao (indoors)
1815 ― Napoleon Bonaparte set sail for exile on St. Helena
1876 ― Thomas Edison patents mimeograph
1900 ― First Davis Cup tennis matches, held in Boston
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
1974 ― President Richard M. Nixon announced he'd resign his office 12 p.m. 08/09
1990 ― Iraq annexes Kuwait