Today In History...

In 1431 Joan of Arc, condemned as a heretic, is burned at the stake in France at age 19.

In 1539 Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto lands in Florida.

In 1783 The Pennsylvania Evening Post becomes the first daily newspaper published in the U.S.

In 1821 The rubber fire hose is patented by James Boyd.

In 1848 The ice cream freezer is patented by William G. Young.

In 1854 The territories of Nebraska and Kansas are established.

In 1883 12 people are trampled to death when a rumor that the recently opened Brooklyn Bridge was in imminent danger of collapsing triggered a stampede.

In 1911 The Indianapolis 500 auto race is run for the first time. Ray Harroun is the winner.

In 1914 The California volcano Mount Lassen erupts.

In 1922 The Lincoln Memorial is dedicated in Washington, DC, by Chief Justice William Howard Taft.

In 1937 Ten people are killed when police fire on steelworkers demonstrating near the Republic Steel plant in South Chicago.

In 1943 American forces secure the Aleutian island of Attu from the Japanese during World War II.

In 1953 The first major league network baseball game is played as Cleveland beats Chicago, 7-2.

In 1958 Unidentified soldiers killed in World War II and the Korean conflict are buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

In 1959 The first successful hovercraft flies.

In 1971 The American space probe Mariner IX blasts off from Cape Kennedy, Florida, on a journey to Mars.

In 1972 The PLO kills 24 and wounds 72 at Israel's Lydda airport.

In 1977 First Lady Rosalynn Carter goes on a trip to South America.

In 1980 Pope John Paul II arrives in France on the first visit by the head of the Roman Catholic Church since the early 19th century.

In 1981 The president of Bangladesh, Ziaur Rahman, is assassinated in a failed military coup.

In 1982 Spain becomes NATO's 16th member, the first country to enter the Western alliance since West Germany in 1955.

In 1984 A vaccine is developed for chicken pox.

In 1984 An American journalist and 3 other people are killed when a bomb explodes inside the Nicaraguan jungle headquarters of rebel leader Eden Pastora, who was wounded.

In 1985 The U.S. relieved a Navy admiral and 2 others of their duties for ordering $659 airplane ashtrays.

In 1985 The Edmonton Oilers win their second consecutive Stanley Cup, defeating the Philadelphia Flyers, four games to one.

In 1986 21 elderly passengers are killed when a tour bus went out of control on a mountain road and plunged into the Walker River near the California-Nevada border.

In 1987 The Soviet Defense Minister is fired one day after West German citizen Matthias Rust lands his aircraft in Red Square.

In 1988 A record is set when 6500 people played the world's biggest game of musical chairs.

In 1989 U.S. Representative Claude Pepper (D-FL), a champion of the nation's elderly, dies in Washington at age 88.

In 1989 Student demonstrators at Tiananmen Square in Beijing erect a 33-foot statue.

In 1990 Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev arrives in Washington for his summit with President Bush.

In 1991 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that prosecutors can be sued for the legal advice they give police and can be forced to pay damages when that advice leads to someone's rights being violated.

In 1992 President Bush orders the seizure of Yugoslav government assets in the U.S. after the United Nations imposed sanctions in an effort to force Yugoslavia to observe a cease-fire in Bosnia.

In 1994 The UN Security Council warns North Korea to stop refueling a nuclear reactor and allow UN monitors to perform full inspections.

In 1994 Mormon Church president Ezra Taft Benson dies at age 94.

In 1995 In a letter to UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic demanded guarantees of no further NATO air attacks and de facto recognition of a self-styled Serb state.

In 1996 Averting a contempt of Congress vote, the White House turns over 1,000 pages of travel office documents.

In 1996 Britain's Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew are granted divorce, ending their 10-year marriage.

In 1997 Jesse K. Timmendequas is found guilty of 1994 rape and murder of 7-year-old Megan Kanka, a crime that led to Megan's Law. (Timmendequas was later sentenced to death.)

In 1998 A powerful earthquake in northern Afghanistan kills almost 5,000 people.

In 1998 A tornado tears through Spencer, SD, killing six people.

In 1998 Pakistan sets off another nuclear blast.

In 1999 Astronauts from the space shuttle Discovery rig cranes and other tools to the exterior of the international space station.

In 2000 President Clinton arrives in Portugal as he opened a weeklong visit to Europe.

In 2001 Former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas is convicted on corruption charges and sentenced to 6 months in prison.

In 2001 Moses Malone and college coaches Mike Krzyzewski and John Chaney enter the Basketball Hall of Fame.

In 2003 President George W. Bush leaves for a weeklong tour of Europe and the Middle East.

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