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Made for the 250thOn this day › July 8
What happened on July 8 in American history
July 8 is the 189th day of the year (the 190th in leap years). Patriot Compass has published 9 stories from July 8 spanning 1663 to 2011. Among them: in 1663, Charles II signs Rhode Island's charter; no colony has ever put religious liberty in writing like this; and in 1775, Hancock and twelve colonies sign a peace plea to King George; the army around Boston stays in the field.
1663
Charles II signs Rhode Island's charter; no colony has ever put religious liberty in writing like this
John Clarke, jailed in Massachusetts a dozen years ago for preaching Baptist, wins the argument: a colony can thrive without a state church.
1775Member story · 1776 Club
Hancock and twelve colonies sign a peace plea to King George; the army around Boston stays in the field
The Olive Branch Petition affirms loyalty to the Crown and asks that the Intolerable Acts be repealed, even as colonial troops mass for an invasion of Canada.
1776Member story · 1776 Club
Nixon reads the Declaration aloud; Philadelphia hears the words for the first time at noon
Trenton and Easton hear it simultaneously; in New York, Washington's troops pull down the equestrian statue of King George III.
1853Member story · 1776 Club
Perry lands at Kurihama; 250 sailors and Marines deliver Fillmore's letter to a closed nation
Four black-hulled warships anchored off Uraga are unlike anything coastal watchers have seen, and Perry refuses to deal with any official beneath the shogun's rank.
1879Member story · 1776 Club
De Long sails the Jeannette north from San Francisco; the pole, he believes, is a warm current away
James Gordon Bennett's newspaper money backs the voyage; the Bering Strait and an open Arctic sea are the theory on which the expedition rests.
1932
The Dow closes at 41.22; ninety cents of every dollar are gone
Three summers of selling, and still no floor in sight.
1947Member story · 1776 Club
Army says it has a flying disc; General Ramey says it is a weather balloon
Rancher Mac Brazel, who found the tinfoil and wooden beams near Corona, is unconvinced: "I am sure that what I found was not any weather observation balloon."
1948Member story · 1776 Club
Esther Blake enlists in the first minute the Air Force opens its doors to women
The sergeant is now the first member of the new Women's Air Force; recruits will follow her to Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, for training.
2011
Atlantis clears the tower; the shuttle program's last mission is airborne
Ferguson, Hurley, Magnus and Walheim lift off from Complex 39A at 11:29 a.m., hauling 9,400 pounds of supplies to the space station.
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