Today in History....February 8

On this day in …

* 1837, the Senate selected the vice president of the United States, choosing Richard Mentor Johnson after no candidate received a majority of electoral votes

* 1904, the Russo-Japanese War, a conflict over control of Manchuria and Korea, began as Japanese forces attacked Port Arthur

* 1910, the Boy Scouts of America was incorporated

* 1915, D.W. Griffith's groundbreaking and controversial silent movie epic about the Civil War, "The Birth of a Nation," premiered in Los Angeles

* 1924, the first execution by gas in the United States took place at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City as Gee Jon, a Chinese immigrant convicted of murder, was put to death

* 1974, the last three-man crew of the Skylab space station returned to Earth after spending 84 days in space

* 2002, the Taliban's foreign minister (Mullah Abdul Wakil
Muttawakil) turned himself in to authorities in Afghanistan

* 2006, President Bush condemned deadly rioting by practitioners of that "religion of peace" which was sparked by cartoons of Muhammad, as he urged foreign leaders to halt the spreading violence