On This Day ... Aug. 9

… Construction on the Leaning Tower of Pisa began in 1173

… the Sistine Chapel opens in Rome in 1483

… Henry David Thoreau published “Walden” in 1854

… in 1892, Thomas Edison received a patent for a two-way telegraph

… Betty Boop premieres in the cartoon “Dizzy Dishes” in 1930

… Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal at the 1936 Summer Olympic Games

… Smokey Bear debuts on posters from the U.S. Forest Service and Wartime Advertising Council in 1944

… the atomic bomb Fat Man is dropped on Nagasaki, Japan in 1945, killing 74,000 people

… in 1965, a fire at the Titan missile base in Searcy, AR kills 53 construction workers

… Five people are murdered by members of a cult led by Charles Manson in 1969: actress Sharon Tate, heiress Abigail Folger, actor Wojciech Frykowski, hairstylist Jay Sebring and graduate Steven Parent

… Richard Nixon resigns from office in 1974 in the wake of the Watergate scandal, the first one to do so in our nation’s history

… in 1988, Wayne Gretzky is traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings. It was a controversial transaction, as Canadians considered him a traitor to his home country

… Psychologist Jean Piaget was born in 1896 … actor Robert Shaw (“Jaws”) was born in 1927 … actor Sam Elliott was born in 1944 … actress Amanda Bearse (“Married … With Children”) was born in 1958 … rapper Kurtis Blow was born in 1959 … singer Whitney Houston was born in 1963 … news anchor Hoda Kotb was born in 1964 … football player Deion Sanders was born in 1967 … actress Gillian Anderson (Scully on “The X-Files”) was born in 1968 … actor Eric Bana (“Hulk,” “Star Trek”) was born in 1968 … actor Thomas Lennon (“The State,” “Reno 911”) was born in 1970 … rapper Mack 10 was born in 1971 … actress Anna Kendrick (“Up in the Air”) was born in 1985 …

Writer Herman Hesse died in 1962 … Abigal Folger, Sharon Tate, Wojciech Frykowski, Jay Sebring and Steven Parent were murdered in 1969 … Crips gang founder Raymond Washington died in 1979 … Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia died in 1995 … actor and dancer Gregory Hines died in 2003 … comedian Bernie Mac died in 2008