On This Day... ⋆ 715Newsroom.com

Hello.

We are glad you are here.
Thank you for spending some of your time with us. We know the days and week can sometimes feel long and stressful, so this is the time we like to slow down a bit and take a simple “scroll down memory lane.”

It’s a quick look back onto the pages of history before we head out into a new day and record more events along the way. So, grab your favorite sippin’ drink and let’s scroll.

Today is Saturday, August 6th. There are 148 days left in 2022.

On This Day:

In 1787, the first draft of the U.S. Constitution was started at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

In 1890, Denton True ‘Cy’ Young pitched his first major-league baseball game. He led the Cleveland Spiders past the Chicago White Sox.

In 1890, the electric chair was first used in a prison in Auburn, New York to execute convicted ax murderer William Kemmeler.

In 1926, Harry Houdini stayed underwater for 91 minutes inside an airtight compartment that supposedly had enough air to keep a man alive for no more than six minutes.

In 1928, acclaimed artist Andy Warhol was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

In 1945, at 8:15 EDT, the United States B-29 Super Fortress called the “Enola Gay” dropped a ten-foot long atomic bomb code named “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, Japan, killing an estimated 140-thousand people.

In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law. The act outlawed discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting. The law had an immediate impact. By the end of 1965, a quarter of a million new black voters had been registered to vote.

In 1972, Atlanta Braves slugger Hank Aaron hit his 660th and 661st career home runs to break Babe Ruth’s record for most home runs with one club. The 661st home run came in the 10th inning to give the Braves a 4-3 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.

In 1985, the navigator of the Enola Gay, the plane that had dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima during W.W.II, killed himself. Friends said he had become more and more depressed over the coverage given to the 40th anniversary of the event, which had killed so many innocent people.

In 1986, William J. Schroeder died after living 620 days with the “Jarvik Seven” artificial heart.

In 1986, Timothy Dalton became the fourth actor to play “James Bond.”

In 1998, former White House intern Monica Lewinsky spent almost nine hours testifying before a grand jury about her relationship with President Clinton.

In 1999, Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals got the 500th home run of his major league career. He also set a record for the fewest at-bats to hit the 500-home run mark.

In 2004, funk music star Rick James was found dead in his home in Los Angeles on this date. Police say the 56-year-old singer, best known for his 1981 smash hit “Superfreak,” died from a heart attack; possibly contributed to by at least nine drugs in his system including methamphetamine and cocaine.

In 2009, director John Hughes died suddenly on this date at the age of 59. Hughes, whose long list of credits include the popular 80s teen movies “The Breakfast Club,” “Pretty In Pink” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” suffered a heart attack while taking a morning walk with his family in New York City. Hughes also wrote and produced the three “Home Alone” movies.

In 2011, 30 U.S. soldiers were killed when a NATO helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan. The Pentagon said some of the soldiers in the crash were from the super elite Seal Team Six. That was the team responsible for the Pakistan raid that led to the demise of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden a few months earlier, although none of the soldiers in the ill-fated chopper actually took part in the raid.

In 2012, the Mars Rover Curiosity landed on the floor of the Gale Crater.

In 2015, John Stewart hosted his last episode of “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central. Stewart took over the “fake news desk” from Craig Kilborn in 1999 and has helped launch the careers of Steve Carell, Ed Helms and John Oliver, who each worked on the show as correspondents