Today is Thursday, Aug. 2, the 214th day of 2018. There are 151 days left in the year.
Birthdays: Actor Nehemiah Persoff is 99. Rock musician Garth Hudson (The Band) is 81. Singer Kathy Lennon (The Lennon Sisters) is 75. Actor Max Wright is 75. Actress Joanna Cassidy is 73. Actress Kathryn Harrold is 68. Actor Butch Patrick (TV: ‘‘The Munsters”) is 65. Rock music producer/drummer Butch Vig (Garbage) is 63. Singer Mojo Nixon is 61. Actress Apollonia is 59. Actress Cynthia Stevenson is 56. Actress Mary-Louise Parker is 54. Rock musician John Stanier is 50. Actress Jacinda Barrett is 46. Actor Sam Worthington is 42. Actress Marci Miller is 33. Singer Charli XCX is 26. Actress Hallie Eisenberg is 26.
In 1610, during his fourth voyage to the Western Hemisphere, English explorer Henry Hudson sailed into what is now known as Hudson Bay.
In 1776, members of the Second Continental Congress began attaching their signatures to the Declaration of Independence.
In 1939, Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt urging creation of an atomic weapons research program.
In 1943, during World War II, US Navy boat PT-109, commanded by Lieutenant 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.
In 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 cover-up.
In 1980, 85 people were killed when a bomb exploded at a train station in Bologna, Italy.
In 1985, 137 people were killed when Delta Air Lines Flight 191, a Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, crashed while attempting to land at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, seizing control of the oil-rich emirate.
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.
In 2013, the United States issued an extraordinary global travel warning to Americans about the threat of an Al Qaeda attack and closed down 21 embassies and consulates across the Muslim world for the weekend.