Great Train Robbery

Today in History 08/08 (Richard Nixon Resigns)

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Video still of then-President Richard Nixon resigning on Aug 8, 1974 (© Photo Archive/Getty Images)(1974) President Richard Nixon resigns from office
Left reeling from the Watergate scandal, and facing the looming prospect of impeachment, President Richard Nixon broadcasts his decision to resign. A first in US presidential history, the resignation will become official the next day, ending an infamous chapter in political corruption.
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States from 1969 until 1974, when he resigned from office, the only U.S. president to do so. He had previously served as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, and prior to that as a U.S. Representative and also Senator from California.
Lived: Jan 09, 1913 – Apr 22, 1994 (age 81)
Height: 5′ 11″ (1.80 m)
Spouse: Pat Nixon (m. 1940 – 1993)
Vice Presidents: Gerald Ford · Spiro Agnew
Party: Republican Party
Children: Julie Nixon Eisenhower (Daughter) · Tricia Nixon Cox (Daughter)
Highlights
  • 1940: Richard Nixon married Pat Nixon on June 21, 1940; their marriage lasted 53 years till June 22, 1993.

  • 1952: He was the running mate of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican Party presidential nominee in the 1952 election.

  • 1969: Nixon was inaugurated as president on January 20, 1969, sworn in by his onetime political rival, Chief Justice Earl Warren.

  • 1973: In July 1973, White House aide Alexander Butterfield testified under oath to Congress that Nixon had a secret taping system that recorded his conversations and phone calls in the Oval Office.

  • 1974: The legal battle over the tapes continued through early 1974, and in April 1974 Nixon announced the release of 1,200 pages of transcripts of White House conversations between him and his aides.

  • 1994: He died at 9:08 p.m. on April 22, 1994, with his daughters at his bedside.

Richard M. Nixon, ca. 1935 - 1982 - NARA
Richard M. Nixon, ca. 1935 – 1982 – NARA – 530679

wiki/Richard_Nixon
wiki/Richard_Nixon’s_resignation_speech
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(1974) President Richard Nixon resigns from office.
Also on this day,

1576 | Construction begins on Tycho Brahe’s observatory
Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe’s elaborate and expensive marvel of an observatory, the first custom-built observatory in Europe, is begun with a cornerstone laid on the island of Hven, Denmark. The red brick building is called Uraniborg and dedicated to the muse of astronomy, Urania.
1786 | Alps’ highest peak is conquered
Europe’s highest peak outside of the Caucasus range, soaring almost 16,000 feet, is successfully ascended for the first time by Savoyard mountain guide Jacques Balmat and doctor Michel-Gabriel Paccard. Many will call the pair’s conquest of Mont Blanc the birth of modern mountaineering.
1963 | Millions grabbed in brazen English train heist
At 3:15 AM in rural Buckinghamshire, England, the Glasgow-Euston mail train is halted, boarded, and robbed of more than £2 million in untraceable bank notes. While most of the money in the biggest rail heist in British history will never be found, many of the participants will be.

Today in History 08/08/17

Remains of a temple after the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945 (© Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)(1945) Nagasaki is second nuclear military target
Three days after Hiroshima was destroyed by the first nuclear weapon strike in history, Nagasaki, Japan, is hit by an atomic blast dropped from a US bomber. Upwards of 39,000 people are immediately killed as the city is leveled, and Japan will surrender less than week later, ending World War II.
During the final stage of World War II, the United States dropped nuclear weapons on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively. The United States had dropped the bombs with the consent of the United Kingdom as outlined in the Quebec Agreement. The two bombings, which killed at least 129,000 people, remain the only use of nuclear weapons for warfare in history.
Date: 09 Aug 1945
1945 Japan WWII Battlefront Atlas
Situation of the Pacific War by August 1, 1945. Japan still had control of all of Manchuria, Korea, Taiwan and Indochina, a large part of China, including most of the main Chinese cities, and much of the Dutch East Indies.

wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki
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