Today in History

On July 8, 2018, divers rescued four of the 12 boys who’d been trapped in a flooded cave in northern Thailand with their soccer coach for more than two weeks.

On this date

1776: Col. John Nixon gave the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence, outside the State House in Philadelphia.

1947: A New Mexico newspaper, the Roswell Daily Record, quoted officials at Roswell Army Air Field as saying they had recovered a “flying saucer” that crashed onto a ranch; officials then said it was actually a weather balloon.

1994: Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s communist leader since 1948, died at age 82.

2000: Venus Williams beat Lindsay Davenport for her first Grand Slam title, becoming the first Black female champion at Wimbledon since Althea Gibson in 1958.

2010: The largest spy swap between the U.S. and Russia since the Cold War unfolded as 10 people accused of spying in suburban America pleaded guilty to conspiracy and were ordered deported to Russia in exchange for the release of four prisoners accused of spying for the West.

2011: The 135th and final space shuttle mission began when space shuttle Atlantis launched from Kennedy Space Center.

Today’s birthdays

Drummer Jaimoe Johanson is 81. Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck is 76. Actor Anjelica Huston is 74. Pro Football Hall of Famer Jack Lambert is 73. Actor Kevin Bacon is 67. Singer Joan Osborne is 63. Musician Beck is 55. Actor Lance Gross (TV: “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne”) is 44. Actor Sophia Bush is 43. Actor Maya Hawke is 27. Actor Jaden Smith is 27.