May 8th
Today in America's Present Past
1541 | Explorer Hernando de Soto and his expedition are the first Europeans to discover the Mississippi River.
1639 | William Coddington founded Newport, Rhode Island.
1753 | Poet Phillis Wheatley was born.
1787 | Civil Rights: Founder Benjamin Rush starts the first U.S. prison reform organization, creating the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons.
1792 | Congress: The military draft was created.
1806 | Founder Robert Morris died.
1824 | Physician and Central American adventurer William Walker was born.
1846 | Mexican-American War: The Battle of Palo Alto, Texas.
1858 | Civil Rights: John Brown hosts a secret antislavery convention.
1879 | George Selden files for a patent on a gasoline-driven automobile.
1880 | Author Jones Very died.
1884 | POTUS: President Harry S. Truman is born.
1886 | Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta sells the first Coca-Cola.
1911 | Blues musician Robert Johnson was born.
1929 | Entrepreneur John C. Bogle was born.
1940 | Entertainer Ricky Nelson was born.
1940 | Author Peter Benchley was born.
1945 | WWII: America’s victory in Europe.
1947 | Entrepreneur Harry Gordon Selfridge died.
1959 | Entrepreneur Mike Illitch forms Little Caesars Pizza in Garden City, Michigan.
1967 | Civil Rights: Boxer Muhammad Ali is indicted for refusing induction into the US Army.
1970 | Hard Hat riot at Wall Street, New York City.
1999 | Civil Rights: Nancy Mace becomes the first female graduate of The Citadel.
2021 | Entrepreneur and politician Pierre S. Du Pont died.