Today In History...

In 1801 The U.S. House of Representatives break an electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, electing Jefferson president and Burr vice president.

In 1817 A street in Baltimore become the first to be lighted with gas from America's first gas company.

In 1865 During the Civil War, Columbia, South Carolina, burns as the Confederates moved out and Union forces moved in.

In 1876 Sardines are first canned, in Eastport, Maine.

In 1897 The forerunner of the National PTA, the National Congress of Mothers is established in Washington, DC.

In 1909 American Indian Geronimo dies in prison at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma.

In 1929 Universal Air Lines shows the first in-flight movie.

In 1933 Newsweek Magazine begins publication.

In 1934 King Albert of Belgium is killed while mountain climbing.

In 1935 Germany establishes the eight-hour work day.

In 1947 The Voice of America begins broadcasting into the USSR.

In 1949 Chaim Weizmann becomes the first Israeli President.

In 1959 U.S. launches Vanguard II, the first weather observation satellite.

In 1964 The U.S. Supreme Court issues "the one man, one vote" ruling stating that congressional districts within states must be equal in U.S.ulation.

In 1972 President Richard Nixon departs Washington, DC, on his historic trip to China.

In 1975 $5 million of art (Cezannes, Reniors, Gauguins, van Goghs) is stolen from a museum in Milan, Italy.

In 1983 U.S. Senator Gary Hart of Colorado announces he would seek the 1984 Democratic presidential nomination.

In 1985 First class postage increases from 20 to 22 cents.

In 1985 Murray P. Haydon, a retired auto worker, becomes the third person to receive a permanent artificial heart as doctors at Humana Hospital Audubon in Louisville, Kentucky, implant the device.

In 1985 General William Westmoreland drops a $120 million CBS libel suit.

In 1986 Johnson And Johnson, maker of Tylenol, announce it would no longer sell over-the-counter medications in capsule form, following the death of a woman who had taken a cyanide-laced capsule.

In 1988 Lt. Col William Higgins, an American officer serving with a UN truce monitoring group, is kidnapped in Lebanon. (He was later killed by his captors).

In 1990 Former President Ronald Reagan spends a second day in a Los Angeles courtroom, giving videotaped testimony about the Iran-Contra affair.

In 1991 During the Persian Gulf War, Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz traveled to Moscow for a meeting with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

In 1992 In Milwaukee, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is sentenced to life in prison. (Dahmer was beaten to death in prison in November 1994.)

In 1993 President Clinton addresses a joint session of Congress, asking Americans to accept one of the biggest tax increases in history as part of a plan to stimulate the economy.

In 1993 An overcrowded ferry carrying up to 1,500 people sinks of Haiti; only 256 people were known to survive.

In 1995 Colin Ferguson is convicted of six counts of murder in the December

1993 Long Island Rail Road shootings. He was later sentenced to a minimum of 200 years in prison.

In 1995 Ecuador and Peru sign a peace accord aimed at ending their 3-week border war.

In 1996 World chess champion Garry Kasparov beat IBM supercomputer Deep Blue, winning a six-game match in Philadelphia. (Kasparov had lost the first game, but won or tied the rest.)

In 1996 Tidal waves kill more than 100 people in Indonesia.

In 1997 Pepperdine University says that Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr would step down from the probe to take a fulltime job at the school. Four days later, Starr reversed himself.

In 2001 Former Nation of Islam official Khalid Abdul Muhammad, known for his harsh rhetoric about Jews & whites, dies in Marietta, GA, at age 53.

In 2002 President Bush opens a 3-nation Asian tour Japan.

In 2003 Twenty-one people are killed in a stampede at the crowded E-Two nightclub in Chicago.

In 2003 Baltimore Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler dies of heatstroke at a  Fort Lauderdale, Florida, hospital, less than 24 hours after complaining of dizziness during a spring training workout.

In 2004 Former Mexican president Jose Lopez Portillo dies at age 83.

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