Today in History - History - May 8th

1960Wiffi Smith wins LPGA Betsy Rawls Peach Blossom Golf Open

1973Ernie Banks fills in for Cubs mgr Whitey Lockman who is ejected during the game, technically becoming baseball's 1st African American manager

1989Paul McCartney releases remake of "Ferry Cross the Mersey" in aid of those affected by the Hillsborough disaster, which claimed the lives of 95 Liverpool football fans

1899Ernest Rutherford publishes his discovery of two different kinds of radiation (Alpha and Beta Particles)

1994"Rise & Fall of Little Voice" closes at Neil Simon NYC after 9 perfs

1963JFK offers Israel assistance against aggression

1948Bradman scores 146 Aust v Surrey, 174 mins, 15 fours

1947A movement among Card players to protest its 1st meeting with Jackie Robinson & the Dodgers is aborted by a talk from owner Sam Breadon

1966Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Tall City Golf Open

1967Muhammad Ali is indicted for refusing induction in US Army

1926David Attenborough, London UK, Naturalist, TV producer and host (BBC "Life" Series)

1884Harry Truman, Lamar Missouri, 33rd US President (D) (1945-1953), (d. 1972)

1753Phillis Wheatley, American poet who was both the second published African-American poet and first published African-American woman.

1968Omar Camporese, Bologna Italy, tennis star

1957Bill Cowher, Crafton Pennsylvania, American football coach

1975Enrique Iglesias, Madrid, Spanish singer-songwriter and King of Latin Pop (Bailamos, Hero)

1911Robert Johnson, blues singer (King of Delta Blues Singer)

1737Edward Gibbon, Putney, English historian (The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire)

1940Peter Benchley, NYC, novelist (Jaws, The Deep), (d. 2006)

1932Sonny Liston, Sand Slough Arkansas, American heavyweight boxer

1910Film producer Samuel Goldwyn (27) weds first wife Blanche Lasky

1981Author John Grisham (26) weds Renee Jones

1783First American flag seamstress Betsy Ross (31) weds John Claypoole at Christ Church

1959Actress Raquel Welch (18) weds high school sweetheart James Welch

1873John Stuart Mill, great Empiricist philosopher, dies at 66

1819Kamehameha I, King of Hawaii (1782-1819)