Nixon says goodbye,Whitney says hello, and Bee Gees talk jive

Written By SCOTT TAYLOR

1892 — Thomas Edison receives a patent for a two-way telegraph. Can you imagine what he'd think if he were alive today?

1936 — U.S. athlete Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal of the Summer Olympic Games.

1944 — Smokey the Bear appears for the first time.

1945 — Nagasaki is destroyed when an atomic bomb is dropped on the city. About 35,000 people die immediately.

1969 — Followers of Charles Manson murder pregnant actress Sharon Tate (wife of Roman Polanski), coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Polish actor Wojciech Frykowski, men's hairstylist Jay Sebring and recent high-school graduate Steven Parent.

1974 — Richard Nixon becomes the first president to resign his office. Vice-President Gerald Ford takes over.

2014 — Michael Brown is shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer, sparking protests and days of unrest.

Born on This Day

1927 — Robert Shaw, film and stage actor, novelist, captain of The Orca in the movie Jaws.

1942 — David Steinberg, Canadian actor, writer, director, comedian.

1943 — Ken Norton, American boxer who defeated Muhammad Ali (and, by the way, broke his jaw, too).

1944 — Sam Elliott, actor best known for, well, his moustache. And Tombstone. We love that movie.

1957 — Melanie Griffith, actress, starred in Working Girl, among others.

1963 — Whitney Houston, singer and actress.

1964 — Brett Hull, hockey player, Hall of Famer, son of Bobby Hull.

1968 — Gillian Anderson, actress and star of The X-Files.

This Day in Music

1968 — Alone in the studio after the other Beatles had gone home, Paul McCartney records Mother Nature's Son at Abbey Road Studios.

1975 — The Bee Gees hit the top of the U.S. charts with Jive Talkin'. They would soon find a new sound.

1980 — AC/DC scores their first No. 1 album with Back in Black. It was the first album they recorded without original lead singer Bon Scott, who died at age 33. It's also their biggest selling album of all time with more than 50 million copies sold.

1986 — Queen ends their Magic European concert tour in front of 120,000 fans. It would be the final time the group played live. Lead singer Freddie Mercury would die five years later.

1995 — Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead dies of a heart attack. He was 53.

2007 — Amy Winehouse cancels a series of European concerts citing “extreme exhaustion”.

This Day in Film and TV

1930 — Betty Boop debuts in Max Fleischer's animated cartoon Dizzy Dishes.

1941 — Actor Jimmy Stewart marries former model Gloria Hatrick McLean.

1958 — Robert Redford marries Lola Van Wegenen. Lola Van Who?

1963 — Britain's rock TV show, Ready Steady Go, premieres.

2003 — Actor/dancer Gregory Hines, who starred in the very underrated movie Running Scared with Billy Crystal dies of liver cancer.

2008 — Comedian Bernie Mac also dies on this day.