1. In 1974, President Richard Nixon resigned from office, becoming the first U.S. president in history to do so. This event occurred during the Watergate scandal, a political controversy that began in the early 1970s after a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C.

2. On August 9, 1785, Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to his friend James Madison discussing issues related to government and politics. The letter, which later became known as the "Madison Letter," is significant because it articulated Jefferson's views on the separation of powers and the importance of limiting the power of the federal government.

3. In 1854, Henry David Thoreau published his book "Walden; or, Life in the Woods," which chronicled his experience of living in a small cabin near Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. The book, which is considered one of the most influential works of American literature, discusses themes of self-reliance, simplicity, and the power of nature.

4. On August 9, 1973, John Paul Getty III, the grandson of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, was kidnapped in Rome, Italy. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of $17 million for his release, and Getty's family initially refused to pay. Getty was eventually released after his captors cut off one of his ears and sent it to a newspaper.

5. In 1995, the first-ever Yahoo! billboard was erected in San Francisco, California. The billboard, which featured the iconic Yahoo! logo and the tagline "Do you Yahoo!?," marked the beginning of the company's global advertising campaign. Yahoo! went on to become one of the most successful tech companies of the late 1990s and early 2000s.