Today in History - History - May 8th

1966Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Tall City Golf Open

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

1967Muhammad Ali is indicted for refusing induction in US Army

1984Minnesota Twins Kirby Puckett debuts with 4 singles

1933Mohandas Gandhi begins a 21-day fast in protest against British oppression in India.

1994President Clinton announces US will no longer repatriate boat people

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

1963JFK offers Israel assistance against aggression

1834Charles Darwin's expedition returns to the Beagle

1660English parliament declares Charles Stuart to be King Charles II of England

1957Bill Cowher, Crafton Pennsylvania, American football coach

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

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

1968Omar Camporese, Bologna Italy, tennis star

1932Sonny Liston, Sand Slough Arkansas, American heavyweight boxer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1981Author John Grisham (26) weds Renee Jones

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

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