It happened on a… August 8

Academy of Motion Pictures reveals new “Popular Film” category for the Oscars.

IXXX Summer Olympic Games open in Beijing, China.

Metallica band member James Hetfield suffers second and third-degree burns during a pyrotechnics explosion on stage at Olympic Stadium, Montreal.

The original US ‘Dream Team’ wins the basketball gold at the Barcelona Olympics 117-85 over Croatia; features superstars Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Scotty Pippen, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing.

Pete Rose begins 5-ms prison term at Marion (IL) Federal prison camp.

President Richard Nixon, in a nationwide television address, announces his resignation from the office of the President of the United States effective noon the next day.

Michael DeBakey became the first surgeon to install an artificial heart pump in a patient.

Fidel Castro forms the “26th of July Movement”, a Cuban vanguard revolutionary organization.

German airship Graf Zeppelin begins a round-the-world flight.

In Boston, the first Davis Cup series began. The U.S. team defeated Great Britain three matches to zero.

The refrigerator was patented by A.T. Marshall.