Today in History, August 2, 1876: ‘Wild Bill’ Hickok shot dead during poker game

Today is Aug. 2. On this date in:

1610

During his fourth voyage to the Western Hemisphere, English explorer Henry Hudson sailed into what is now known as Hudson Bay.

1776

Members of the Second Continental Congress began attaching their signatures to the Declaration of Independence.

1873

Inventor Andrew S. Hallidie successfully tested a cable car he had designed for the city of San Francisco.

1876

Frontiersman “Wild Bill” Hickok was shot and killed while playing poker at a saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, by Jack McCall, who was later hanged.

1909

The original Lincoln “wheat” penny first went into circulation, replacing the “Indian Head” cent.

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. 

More:Black Sox scandal tainted Reds’ 1919 World Series win over Chicago White Sox

1923

Warren G. Harding, the 29th president of the United States, died in San Francisco; Vice President Calvin Coolidge became president.

1934

German President Paul von Hindenburg died, paving the way for Adolf Hitler’s complete takeover.

1939

Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt urging creation of an atomic weapons research program.

1943

During World War II, U.S. Navy boat PT-109, commanded by Lt. (jg) John F. Kennedy, sank after being rammed in the middle of the night by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri off the Solomon Islands. Two crew members were killed.

1964

The destroyer USS Maddox suffered light damage during a skirmish with North Vietnamese patrol torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. (This and an alleged second incident two days later led to congressional approval of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that propelled America deep into war.)

1974

Former White House counsel John W. Dean III was sentenced to one to four years in prison for obstruction of justice in the Watergate coverup. (Dean ended up serving four months.)

1980

A bomb exploded at the train station in Bologna, Italy, killing 85 people.

1985

Delta Air Lines Flight 191, a Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, crashed while attempting to land at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport; 137 people were killed.

1990

Iraq invaded Kuwait, seizing control of the oil-rich emirate. (The Iraqis were later driven out in Operation Desert Storm.)

2000

Republicans awarded Texas Gov. George W. Bush their 2000 presidential nomination at the party’s convention in Philadelphia and ratified Dick Cheney as his running mate.