Today In History...

In 1788 Maryland is the seventh state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

In 1789 There is a mutiny on the "Bounty" as the crew of the British ship set Captain William Bligh and 18 crewman adrift on the South Pacific.

In 1914 W.H. Carrier patents the air conditioner.

In 1919 The first successful parachute jump is made.

In 1942 According to a Gallup poll, most Americans preferred to call the ongoing global conflict "World War II" or "The Second World War."

In 1945 Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress are captured and executed by Italian partisans during World War II.

In 1947 A 6-man expedition set sail from Peru aboard a balsa wood raft named "Kon-Tiki" on a 101-day journey across the Pacific to Polynesia.

In 1952 War with Japan officially ends as a treaty that is signed by the U.S. and 47 other nations takes effect.

In 1958 Vice President Richard M. Nixon begins a goodwill tour of Latin America beginning in Uruguay.

In 1965 U.S. Marines go ashore in the Dominican Republic to protect Americans during a revolution.

In 1967 General William Westmoreland assures Congress that the U.S. "would prevail in Vietnam."

In 1967 Heavyweight champ Muhammad Ali refuses induction into the army.

In 1969 French President Charles de Gaulle resigns from office.

In 1974 The last Americans are evacuated from Saigon.

In 1977 Christopher Boyce is convicted of selling secrets to the Soviet Union.

In 1980 Secretary of State Cyrus Vance resigns protesting America's failed hostage-rescue attempt in Iran.

In 1983 Gerry Harley sets a world record for shaving 987 men in 60 minutes.

In 1983 President Reagan names former Senator Richard Stone special envoy to Central America.

In 1986 The Soviet Union informs the world of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, saying the accident damaged a reactor and that aid was being rendered to those affected.

In 1987 Contra rebels in Nicaragua kill Benjamin Ernest Linder, an American engineer working on a hydroelectric project for the Sandinista government.

In 1988 A flight attendant is killed and 61 injured when part of the roof of an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 tears off during a flight over Hawaii.

In 1989 President Bush announces the U.S. and Japan had concluded a deal on joint development of the FSX, a new Japanese jet fighter.

In 1990 200,000 anti-abortion demonstrators march in Washington, DC.

In 1990 "A Chorus Line" closes after 6,137 performances on Broadway.

In 1991 The space shuttle Discovery blasts off with seven astronauts on a so-called "Star Wars" research mission.

In 1992 The U.S. Agriculture Department unveils its pyramid-shaped recommended-diet chart that had cost nearly $1 million to develop.

In 1993 The first "Take Our Daughters to Work Day" is held to boost self-esteem of girls with invitations to a parent's workplace.

In 1994 Former CA official Aldrich Ames pleads guilty to espionage and tax evasion charges and gets life in prison.

In 1995 A gas line explodes in the middle of an intersection crowded with morning traffic in Taegu, South Korea, killing 100 people and injuring 125 others.

In 1996 President Clinton gives 4 1/2 hours of videotaped testimony as defense witness in the criminal trial of his former Whitewater business partners, denying he pressured an Arkansas businessman for illegal loan.

In 1996 A man armed with a semiautomatic rifle opens fire on tourists on the Australian island of Tasmania, killing 35 people; he was captured by police after a 12-hour standoff.

In 1997 A worldwide treaty to ban chemical weapons takes effect, although Russia, Iraq and North Korea have yet to sign on.

In 1997 In Philadelphia, President Clinton, along with former presidents George Bush, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford, begin drafting a national army of community service volunteers during the Presidents' Summit for America's Future.

In 1998 The U.S. Senate opens a new round of hearings on alleged abuse and mismanagement at the Internal Revenue Service.

In 2000 The U.S. Justice Department submits plan to a federal judge dividing Microsoft into two businesses in response to antitrust complaints.

In 2000 Richard Scott Baumhammers, a white man from suburban Pittsburgh, kills five in racially motivated attack.

In 2001 A Russian rocket blasts off from Central Asia with the first space tourist, California businessman Dennis Tito, and two cosmonauts on a journey to the international space station.

In 2002 Severe weather, including tornadoes in Missouri and Maryland, kill at least six people.

In 2003 The Soyuz space capsule carrying a U.S.-Russian space crew docks with the international space station.

In 2004 The first photos of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal are shown on CBS' "60 Minutes II."

In 2005 The Patent Law Treaty goes into effect.

In 2012 A tent collapses near Busch Stadium in St. Louis, MO, kills one and injures around 110 people.

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