August 30th, 2008

Today in History

1999:
East Timorese vote for independence in a referendum.

1991:
Azerbaijan declares independence from the USSR.

1967:
Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first African American Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

1909:
Burgess Shale fossils discovered by Charles Doolittle Walcott

1873:
Austrian explorers Julius von Payer and Karl Weyprecht discover the archipelago of Franz Joseph Land in the Arctic Sea.