Wednesday, Aug. 8, is the 221st day of 2012. There are 145 days left in the year.
Today’s birthdays: Actress Esther Williams is 91. Actor Richard Anderson is 86. Actress Nita Talbot is 82. Singer Mel Tillis is 80. Actor Dustin Hoffman is 75. Actress Connie Stevens is 74. Country singer Phil Balsley (The Statler Brothers) is 73. Actor Larry Wilcox is 65. Actor Keith Carradine is 63. R&B singer Airrion Love (The Stylistics) is 63. Director Martin Brest is 61. Rock musician Dennis Drew (10,000 Maniacs) is 55. TV personality Deborah Norville is 54. Rock musician The Edge (U2) is 51. Rock musician Rikki Rockett (Poison) is 51. Rapper Kool Moe Dee is 50. Rock musician Ralph Rieckermann is 50. Rock singer Scott Stapp is 39. Actor Kohl Sudduth is 38. Rock musician Tom Lintonis 37. Singer JC Chasez (’N Sync) is 36. Actress Tawny Cypress is 36. R&B singer Drew Lachey is 36. R&B singer Marsha Ambrosius is 35. Actress Lindsay Sloane is 35. Actress Countess Vaughn is 34. Actor Michael Urie is 32. Tennis player Roger Federer is 31. Actress Meagan Good is 31. Britain’s Princess Beatrice of York is 24.
In 1937, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, Japan completed its occupation of Beijing.
In 1942, six Nazi saboteurs captured after landing in the US were executed in Washington, D.C.; two others who’d cooperated were spared.
In 1963, Britain’s ‘‘Great Train Robbery’’ took place as thieves made off with 2.6 million pounds in banknotes.
In 1968, the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach nominated Richard Nixon for president on the first ballot.
In 1973, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew branded as ‘‘damned lies’’ reports he had taken kickbacks from government contracts in Maryland, and vowed not to resign.
In 1974, President Nixon announced his resignation, effective the next day, following damaging new revelations in the Watergate scandal.
In 2011, eager to calm a nervous nation, President Obama dismissed an unprecedented downgrade by Standard Poor’s of the US credit rating from AAA to AA-plus, declaring: ‘‘No matter what some agency may say, we’ve always been and always will be a triple-A country.’’