This day in history - August 2

[seamusTX]

1776 - The members of the Continental Congress began signing the final engrossed vesion of the Declaration of Independence.

1873 - Andrew Hallidie tested the first cable car system in San Francisco.

1876 - Wild Bill Hickok was fatally shot in the back of the head by Jack McCall while playing poker in Deadwood, present-day South Dakota. McCall was later found guilty of murder and hanged. McCall's motive has never been determined with certainty.

1909 - The first Lincoln head cents were minted. The original design had ears of wheat on the back. With very few changes, the coin has been in circulation for a century.

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this was the first U.S. coin to bear the likeness of a historical human being, rather than a stylized figure like Liberty or an Indian.

Americans were touchy about using the likeness of real people on coins, stamps, etc., because the custom in the U.K. was and is to use the profile of the current monarch on such items.

1909 - The U.S. Army took delivery of its first Wright airplane.

http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/twhp/wwwl ... facts1.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

1923 - President Warren Harding died of a heart attack.

1943 - PT-109 commanded by Lt. John F. Kennedy was sunk by the Japanese in the South Pacific.

1964 - North Vietnamese naval vessels attacked the USS Maddox in international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. Maddox was struck by one machine gun bullet, which caused no injuries.

http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq120-1.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

- Jim