On this day, July 8

1776 Col. John Nixon gave the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence, outside the State House (now Independence Hall) in Philadelphia.

1876 The Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce was chartered. 1946 The Mellon National Bank and Trust Company became a billion-dollar financial institution, one of the nation’s largest and strongest, as the result of an approval of merger by directors of the Union Trust Company of Pittsburgh and the Mellon National Bank.

1972 The Nixon administration announced a deal to sell $750 million in grain to the Soviet Union. (However, the Soviets were also engaged in secretly buying subsidized American grain, resulting in what critics dubbed “The Great Grain Robbery.”)

2004 Cable television magnate John Rigas, founder and chairman of Adelphia Communications Corp., was convicted along with his son Timothy of looting the cable company to line their own pockets.

Some items are from Stefan Lorant’s “Pittsburgh: The Story of an American City” (digital.library.pitt.edu/chronology).

— Compiled by Rick Nowlin Today’s birthdays: Singer Steve Lawrence, 85. Actor Jeffrey Tambor, 76. Rock musician Jaimoe Johanson, 75. Ballerina Cynthia Gregory, 73. Actress Kim Darby, 73. Actress Jonelle Allen, 72. Children’s performer Raffi, 72. Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, 71. Actress Anjelica Huston, 69. Writer Anna Quindlen, 68. Actor Kevin Bacon, 62. Actress Kathleen Robertson, 47. Christian rock musician Stephen Mason (Jars of Clay), 45. Actor Milo Ventimiglia, 43. Rock musician Tavis Werts, 43.

Thought for today: “You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure about you.”

— Nelson A. Rockefeller, American politician and businessman (1908-1979)