On This Day:
Monday July 8, 2013

This is the 189th day of the year, with 176 days remaining in 2013.

Fact of the Day: Buddha's Eightfold Path

The Eightfold Path teaches that the way Buddhists lead their lives should be correct in eight important aspects. Those who follow the noble Eightfold Path are freed from the suffering that is an essential part of human existence and are led ultimately to nirvana, or enlightenment. The Eightfold Path consists of: (1) right understanding-faith in the Buddhist view of the nature of existence in terms of the Four Noble Truths; (2) right thought-the resolve to practice the faith; (3) right speech-avoidance of falsehoods, slander, or abusive speech; (4) right action-abstention from taking life, stealing, and improper sexual behavior; (5) right livelihood-rejection of occupations not in keeping with Buddhist principles; (6) right effort-avoidance of bad mental states and development of good ones; (7) right mindfulness-awareness of the body, feelings, and thought; and (8) right concentration.

Events

1497 - Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama left Lisbon for a voyage on which he discovered the Cape route to India.
1663 - England's King Charles II granted a charter to Rhode Island. 
1776 - In Philadelphia, the Liberty Bell rang from the tower of the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall), summoning citizens to the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence.
1835 - The Liberty Bell cracked when it was rung in honor of Chief Justice John Marshall, who had recently died.
1865 - C.E. Barnes of Lowell, Massachusetts, patented the machine gun.
1881 - The first ice cream sundae was served -- by accident by druggist Edward Berner of Two Rivers, Wisconsin. He scooped ice cream into a dish and poured the flavoring syrup for soda water (not allowed on Sundays) on top.
1889 - The "Wall Street Journal" was first published. 
1907 - Florenz Ziegfeld staged his first "Follies," on the roof of the New York Theater. 
1932 - The stock market fell to its lowest point during the Depression.
1950 - General Douglas MacArthur was named commander-in-chief of United Nations forces in Korea. 
1978 - Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler became the first to climb Mount Everest without oxygen tanks.

Births

1838 - Ferdinand von Zeppelin, German designer and manufacturer of airships.
1839 - John D. Rockefeller, American industrialist and philanthropist.
1851 - Arthur Evans, English archaeologist.
1908 - Nelson Rockefeller, U.S. Vice President under Gerald Ford (1974-77), Governor of New York (1958-73).
1934 - Marty Feldman, English comedian and actor.
1949 - Wolfgang Puck, American chef.
1958 - Kevin Bacon, American film and theater actor.
1961 - Toby Keith (born Toby Keith Covel), American country music singer-songwriter.
1970 - Beck (born Bek David Campbell), American musician.

Deaths

1822 - Percy Bysshe Shelley, English romantic poet.
1967 - Vivien Leigh, English film actress.
1994 - Kim Sung Ju, communist leader of North Korea from 1948 to 1994.
1999 - Pete Conrad, Jr., an American astronaut and the third man to walk on the moon.
2003 - Ladan and Laleh Bijani, Iranian conjoined twin sisters, joined at the head, who died after their complicated surgical