Today's Highlight in History:
On Aug. 2, 1776, members of the Continental Congress began attaching their signatures to the Declaration of Independence.
On this date:
In 1876, frontiersman "Wild Bill" Hickok was shot and killed while playing poker at a saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory.
In 1921, opera singer Enrico Caruso died in Naples, Italy.
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In 1921, a jury in Chicago acquitted several former members of the Chicago White Sox baseball team and two others of conspiring to defraud the public in the notorious "Black Sox" scandal.
In 1923, the 29th president of the United States, Warren G. Harding, died in San Francisco.
In 1934, German President Paul von Hindenburg died, paving the way for Adolf Hitler's complete takeover.
In 1939, Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt urging creation of an atomic weapons research program.
In 1945, President Truman, Soviet leader Josef Stalin and British Prime Minister Clement Attlee concluded the Potsdam conference.
In 1964, the Pentagon reported the first of two attacks on U.S. destroyers by North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin.
In 1985, 137 people were killed when a Delta Air Lines jetliner crashed while attempting to land at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, seizing control of the oil-rich emirate. (The Iraqis were later driven out in Operation Desert Storm.)
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In 2000, Republicans awarded Texas Governor George W. Bush their 2000 presidential nomination at the party's convention in Philadelphia and ratified Dick Cheney as his running mate.
Ten years ago: The campaign of President George H.W. Bush, accused by Bill Clinton of mudslinging, responded with a vitriolic press release that referred to "sniveling hypocritical Democrats" (Bush later disavowed the release). At the Barcelona Summer Olympics, American Jackie Joyner-Kersee repeated as heptathlon champion.
Five years ago: "Naked Lunch" author William S. Burroughs, the godfather of the "Beat generation," died in Kansas City, Mo., at age 83.
