Today in History: 8 July
292 – Earliest known date on a Maya inscription, possibly depicting the enthronement of King Siyaj Chan K’awiil I of Tikal
1283 – War of the Sicilian Vespers: Battle of Malta
1497 – Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama departs on his first voyage and becomes the first European to reach India by sea
1680 – The first confirmed tornado in America kills a servant at Cambridge, Massachusetts
1731 – Theologian Jonathan Edwards preaches his sermon “God Glorified in Man’s Dependence” in Boston, later his first published sermon
1776 – Colonel John Nixon gives the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence to an assemblage of citizens in Philadelphia
1835 – Liberty Bell cracks (again)
1836 – Charles Darwin reaches Saint Helena in HMS Beagle and takes up lodgings near the tomb of Napoleon
1853 – Commodore Matthew C. Perry sails his frigate Susquehanna into Tokyo Bay, opening Japan to Western influence and trade
1913 – Alfred Carlton Gilbert’s patent for the Erector Set is issued, one of the most popular toys of all time
1950 – General Douglas MacArthur named commander-in-chief of UN forces in Korea
1969 – IBM CICS is made generally available for the 360 mainframe computer
1974 – David Bowie begins 6 consecutive nights of his “Diamond Dogs” tour at Tower Theatre in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania; several shows were recorded and released as the double LP “David Live” later in the year
1979 – Voyager 2 takes first ever photo of Jupiter’s satellite Adrastea (J14)
1994 – Space Shuttle STS-65 (Columbia 17) launches
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1621 – Jean de La Fontaine, French poet
1831 – John Pemberton, American pharmacist (inventor of Coca-Cola)
1839 – John D. Rockefeller, American industrialist and founder of Standard Oil
1951 – Anjelica Huston, American actress
Unrecoverable Error –
1538 – Diego de Almagro, Castilian-Spanish conquistador of Chile and Peru
1695 – Christiaan Huygens, Dutch mathematician, astronomer, and scientist
1967 – Vivien Leigh, English actress
2011 – Betty Ford, First Lady of the United States and founder of the Betty Ford Center
2012 – Ernest Borgnine, American Academy Award-winning actor
The Funnies:
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Mouseover: After determining that his body was full of pipes carrying iron-rich fluid, our current theory is that the dagger-shaped object precipitated within the wound.
Explain XKCD 3112: Geology Murder - explain xkcd
Image Credit: XKCD
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In case you missed it, you can go take a look at yesterday’s best thing Spark! by @steve6343 over here
