July 8 ...

In 1776 Col. John Nixon gave the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence, in Philadelphia. In 1839 John D. Rockefeller, Sr. was born in Richford, NY. In 1853 an expedition led by Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Yedo Bay, Japan, on a mission to seek diplomatic and trade relations with the Japanese. In 1889 the Wall Street Journal was first published; also on this day, John L. Sullivan defeated Jake Kilrain in the last championship bare-knuckle fight, in Richburg, MS. The fight lasted 75 rounds. In 1919 President Wilson received a tumultuous welcome in New York City after his return from the Versailles Peace Conference in France. In 1932 the Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level of the Great Depression, bottoming out at 41.22. In 1947 demolition work began in New York City to make way for the new permanent headquarters of the United Nations; also on this day, reports are broadcast that a UFO has crash landed in Roswell, NM. In 1950 Gen. Douglas MacArthur was named commander-in-chief of United Nations forces in Korea. In 1975 President Ford announced he would seek the Republican nomination for the presidency in 1976. In 1994 Kim Il Sung, North Korea's communist leader since 1948, died at age 82. In 1997 NATO invited the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland to join the alliance. The three countries officially joined in 1999.