Today In History...

In 1778 Mary Ludwig Hayes gains the name "Molly Pitcher" when she aids American forces at the Revolutionary War Battle of Monmouth in New Jersey by carrying them water.

In 1820 The tomato is proved to be nonpoisonous.

In 1832 A cholera epidemic is reported in New York and eventually spreads to other states claiming over 10,000 lives.

In 1836 James Madison, the 4th U.S. president, dies in Montpelier, Virginia.

In 1838 Britain's Queen Victoria is crowned in Westminster Abbey.

In 1859 The first dog show takes place in Newcastle, England.

In 1889 Maria Mitchell, the first American woman astronomer, dies at age 71.

In 1894 Labor Day is established as a holiday for federal employees on the first Monday of September.

In 1914 Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife, Sofia, are assassinated in present-day Sarajevo, by a Serbian revolutionary, an event that triggered World War I.

In 1919 Harry S. Truman marries Elizabeth Virginia Wallace.

In 1919 The Treaty of Versailles, ending World War I, is signed in France.

In 1928 New York Governor Alfred E. Smith is nominated for president at the Democratic National Convention in Houston, Texas.

In 1934 President Franklin Roosevelt signs into law the National Housing Act, which established the Federal Housing Administration.

In 1939 Pan-American begins the first regular trans-Atlantic air service, as the "Dixie-Clipper" left Port Washington, NY, for Portugal.

In 1944 The Republican National Convention in Chicago nominates New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey for president.

In 1950 North Korean forces capture Seoul, South Korea.

In 1951 The radio program "Amos 'N Andy" begins a two-year run on CBS-TV.

In 1962 3 inches of hail falls in Grand Canyon Village, Colorado.

In 1965 President Lyndon Johnson authorizes ground troops in Vietnam.

In 1976 U.S. Air Force and Coast Guard academies go co-ed.

In 1977 The U.S. Supreme Court upholds a 1974 law giving the government control over former President Nixon's White House papers and tapes.

In 1978 The U.S. Supreme Court orders the University of California Medical College in Davis to admit Allan Bakke, a white man who claimed he was a victim of reverse discrimination when the school rejected his application.

In 1980 The watermelon seed-spitting record is set at 65 feet, 4 inches.

In 1982 Prince Charles and Lady Diana name their baby "William."

In 1983 A 100-foot section of bridge along I-95 in Greenwich, CT, collapses, killing three people.

In 1988 The federal government sues the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to force reforms on the nation's largest labor union, saying it was dominated by the Mafia.

In 1989 China's new Communist Party chief, Jiang Zemin, says his government would show no mercy to leaders of the crushed pro-democracy movement.

In 1990 Wildfires destroy 350 homes in Santa Barbara, California.

In 1990 Jurors in the drug trial of Washington D.C. Mayor Marion Barry Jr. view videotape showing Barry smoking crack cocaine during an FBI hotel-room sting operation.

In 1991 In Detroit, a white woman is attacked by a group of black women at a downtown fireworks display in an incident captured on amateur video.

In 1991 Two are killed when a 6.0 earthquake shook Southern California.

In 1992 Southern California is rocked by a pair of earthquakes that killed one person and injured 402.

In 1992 A 35-year-old man at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center becomes the first recipient of a baboon liver transplant; he lived more than 10 weeks.

In 1993 The National Commission on AIDS ends its work after four years, with members expressing frustration over how little national leaders had done to combat the disease.

In 1994 President Clinton becomes the first chief executive in U.S. history to set up a personal legal defense fund and ask Americans to contribute to it.

In 1995 The San Francisco Chronicle receives a threat from the Unabomber to blow up a plane by the July Fourth weekend, leading federal agents to ground all mail in California and impose the tightest airport security since the Gulf War.

In 1995 The House overwhelmingly approves a constitutional amendment designed to protect the U.S. flag from desecration. (But, the amendment was later defeated in the Senate).

In 1996 The Citadel votes to admit women, ending a 153-year-old men-only policy at the South Carolina military school.

In 1997 Mike Tyson is disqualified after three rounds of heavyweight title fight for biting Evander Holyfield's ear.

In 1998 Poland is allowed to lease U.S. aircraft to bring military force up to NATO standards.

In 1998 The Cincinnati Enquirer apologizes to the Chiquita banana company and retracts stories questioning its business practices.

In 1998 The 12th World AIDS Conference opened in Geneva.

In 1999 Announcing even bigger projected budget surpluses, President Clinton said the government could drastically reduce the national debt while still buttressing Social Security and Medicare.

In 2000 Seven months after he was cast adrift in the Florida Straits, Elian Gonzalez returns to his native Cuba.

In 2000 The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Nebraska's "partial-birth" abortion law. It also ruled that the Boy Scouts can bar homosexuals from serving as troop leaders.

In 2002 WorldCom begins laying off 17,000 employees worldwide after  disclosing accounting irregularities that later forced it into bankruptcy protection.

In 2004 The U.S. resumes direct diplomatic ties with Libya after 24 years.

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