Today In History...

In 1684 A patent is granted for the thimble.

In 1792 A highwayman named Nicolas Jacques Pelletier becomes the first person under French law to be executed by the guillotine.

In 1859 Ground is broken for the Suez Canal.

In 1898 The United States formally declares war on Spain.

In 1901 New York becomes the first state requiring license plates for cars.The fee was one dollar.

In 1910 Atlanta receives and inch and a half of snow, setting the record for the latest freeze and snowfall of their season.

In 1915 During World War I, Allied soldiers invade the Gallipoli Peninsula in an unsuccessful attempt to take the Ottoman Turkish Empire out of the war.

In 1928 Morris Frank receives the first guide dog for the blind, a German Shepherd named Buddy.

In 1945 Delegates from 50 countries meet in San Francisco to organize the United Nations.

In 1945 During World War II, U.S. and Soviet forces link up near Torgau, Germany, on the Elbe River, a meeting that dramatized the collapse of Nazi Germany's defenses.

In 1959 The St. Lawrence Seaway opens to shipping.

In 1961 Robert Noyce is granted a patent for the integrated circuit.

In 1962 The Seattle World's Fair officially opens.

In 1980 The White House announces the failure of the Iran hostage-rescue mission.

In 1982 In accordance with Camp David, Israel completes Sinai withdrawl.

In 1982 During the Falklands War, South Georgia Island is retaken by British commandos.

In 1983 The sailplane distance record is set at 1022 miles.

In 1983 Soviet leader Yuri Andropov invites Samantha Smith to visit his country after receiving a letter in which the Manchester, Maine, schoolgirl had expressed fears of nuclear war.

In 1983 The Pioneer 10 spacecraft crosses Pluto's orbit, beginning on an endless voyage through the Milky Way.

In 1984 David Kennedy, the son of the late Robert F. Kennedy, dies at age 28 of a possible drug overdose.

In 1985 257 members of the U.S. House of Representatives send a letter to President Reagan, urging him to cancel his planned visit to the German military cemetery at Bitburg.

In 1986 Britain expells 300 Libyan student pilots and aircraft mechanics.

In 1986 President Reagan leaves Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington on the first leg of a 13-day journey to the Far East that included an international economic summit in Tokyo.

In 1988 A judge in Jerusalem sentences John Demjanjuk to death after the retired Ohio autoworker was convicted of being "Ivan the Terrible," a Nazi death camp guard who killed tens of thousands of people.

In 1988 Japanese Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita announces his resignation in order to take responsibility for his involvement in Japan's "Recruit" stock scandal.

In 1989 Japanese Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita announces his resignation in order to take responsibility for his involvement in Japan's Recruit stock scandal.

In 1990 Violeta Barrios de Chamorro is inaugurated as president of Nicaragua, ending eleven years of leftist Sandinista rule.

In 1990 The Hubble Space Telescope is deployed from the space shuttle Discovery.

In 1991 Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, facing harsh criticism during a closed-door meeting of the Communist Party's Central Committee, offers to resign as party leader, an offer that was rejected.

In 1992 Islamic forces in Afghanistan take control of most of the capital of Kabul following the collapse of the Communist government.

In 1992 An earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale shakes northern California.

In 1993 Hundreds of thousands of gay rights activists and their supporters march in Washington, DC, demanding equal rights and freedom from discrimination.

In 1994 Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa and Cabinet resign. Conservative Tsutomu Hata becomes prime minister.

In 1995 Actress/dancer Ginger Rogers dies at age 83.

In 1996 A day after the PLO annulled clauses calling for Israel's destruction, Israel's governing Labor Party abandoned its long-standing opposition to a Palestinian state.

In 1997 A federal judge rules that the FDA could regulate tobacco as a drug, but said it couldn't restrict cigarette advertising.

In 1998 Whitewater prosecutors question first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton on videotape about her work as a private lawyer for the failed savings and loan at the center of the investigation.

In 1999 More than 70,000 mourners gather in Littleton, CO, to remember the victims of the Columbine High School massacre.

In 1999 Lord Killanin, former president of the International Olympic Committee, dies in Dublin, Ireland, at age 84.

In 2000 Zika Petrovic, an ally of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, is shot and killed.

In 2000 Broadway producer David Merrick dies in London at age 88.

In 2001 President Bush warns China that an attack on Taiwan could provoke a U.S. military response.

In 2001 Ousted Philippine President Joseph Estrada becomes the country's first leader to be arrested for alleged corruption in office.

In 2003 Georgia lawmakers vote to scrap the Dixie cross from the state's flag.

In 2004 Cosmetics queen Estee Lauder dies in New York at age 97.

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