Richard Nixon resigns as US President due to involvement in Watergate scandal. Great Train Robbery occurs in Britain. First successful heart transplant in Japan. Wright brothers perform first public flight. Nazi saboteurs executed in the US. Marcinelle mining disaster kills 136. Wrigley Field holds first night game. Thomas Edison awarded patent for mimeograph. Millionth patent filed in the US. Napoleon Bonaparte exiled to St. Helena.
US President Richard Nixon has announced his resignation. (1974) Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, resigned amid allegations that he was involved in the Watergate scandal. His resignation became effective the following day, 9 August. He was the first president in US history to resign.
The robbers escaped with 2.6 million pounds (about $7 million US dollars at the time) in the “Great Train Robbery” in Britain. (1963) 15 Land Rover thieves stole 120 bags of mail from a train at Bridego railway bridge, near Buckinghamshire, England. Most of the money has never been recovered. 13 of the robbers were caught.
The first successful heart transplant in Japan occurred. (1968) Dr. Jurō Wada removed a beating heart from a teenager he declared brain dead and transplanted it into another teenager with congenital heart disease. The boy who received the transplant lived for another three months and Dr. Wada was arrested for murder. His trial dragged on for six years before being definitively shelved.
Wilbur Wright made his first public flight. (1908) The Wright brothers, Wilbur and Orville, invented and built the world’s first working airplane. On this day, they performed for the first time a public demonstration flight in Le Mans, France at the Hunaudières racecourse.
Six Nazi saboteurs have been executed in the United States. (1942) Eight Germans secretly entered the United States during World War II with the intention of attacking US civilian infrastructure. They were captured thanks to information provided by two Nazis, George Dasch and Ernest Burger. Dasch and Burger were jailed and the other six executed. In 1948, US President Harry S. Truman freed Dasch and Burger, allowing them to return to Germany.
262 miners were trapped by a coal mine fire and 136 of those miners were killed. (1956) Fire trapped miners in a coal mine in Marcinelle, Belgium. It was the worst mining disaster in Belgian history.
Chicago’s Wrigley Field turned on its lights for the first time. (1988) Wrigley was the last Major League Baseball home to begin holding night games. The first major league night game occurred in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1935 when US President Franklin D. Roosevelt turned on the lights.
The patent for the mimeograph was awarded to Thomas Edison. (1876) Edison also invented the first practical light bulb, movie camera, and phonograph. He is considered the world’s most prolific inventor, with 1,093 US patents to his name and patents also in Germany, England and France.
The millionth patent was filed in the United States. (1911) Patent for a tubeless vehicle tire was filed by Francis Holton in the United States Patent Office. The first US patent was filed on July 31, 1790 and was signed by the first president of the United States, George Washington. By the end of 2009, more than 15 million patent applications had been filed in the United States.
Napoleon Bonaparte set out for the South Atlantic to live in exile. (1815) Napoleon was a political and military leader in France. In 1813, a coalition of Prussia, Russia, Sweden, Austria, the United Kingdom and some German states forced Napoleon to abdicate and retreat into exile on St. Helena in the South Atlantic. He died six years later of stomach cancer.
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