Today In History...

In 1543 England's King Henry VIII marries his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, who outlived him.

In 1690 Protestant forces led by William of Orange defeat the Roman Catholic Army of James II at the Battle of the Boyne, a victory which established Protestant domination in Northern Ireland.

In 1812 U.S. forces led by General Hull invade Canada during the War of

1812 against Britain. (Hull retreated shortly thereafter to Detroit.)

In 1862 Congress creates the Medal of Honor awarding it to Union soldiers who had captured a Confederate railroad train.

In 1933 Congress passes the first minimum wage law (40 cents per hour).

In 1933 The Screen Actors Guild hold their first meeting.

In 1951 After a 10-inch rainfall, Kansas City suffers major floods.

In 1957 Dwight D. Eisenhower is the first president to fly in a helicopter during the first nuclear attack simulation.

In 1960 Echo I, the first passive satellite, is launched.

In 1960 The Soviet Union's Sputnik 5 is launched with 2 dogs.

In 1974 Keith Harraway of Essex, England, sets a world's record by blowing 169 smoke rings from one puff of a cigarette.

In 1974 John Ehrlichman, a former aid to President Nixon, and three others are convicted of conspiring to violate the civil rights of Daniel Ellsberg's former psychiatrist.

In 1976 "The Family Feud" with host Richard Dawson debuts on ABC-TV.

In 1977 The first free flight test of the Space Shuttle Enterprise takes place.

In 1977 President Carter defends the U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting government payments for poor women's abortions, saying, "There are many things in life that are not fair."

In 1981 Israeli jets bomb Palestinian guerrilla targets in Lebanon.

In 1984 Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale announces that had chosen U.S. Rep. Geraldine Ferraro of New York as his running mate. Ferraro was the first woman to run for the U.S. vice presidency on a major-party ticket.

In 1984 New York passes the first mandatory seatbelt law.

In 1984 After 11 years, the sitcom "Happy Days" airs for the last time on ABC-TV.

In 1985 A cancerous growth is discovered in President Ronald Reagan's large intestine, prompting surgery the following day.

In 1988 Democratic presidential candidate Michael S. Dukakis chooses Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen as his running mate.

In 1989 A farmer in eastern France goes on a shooting rampage, killing 14 people in two hours before being captured.

In 1989 "When Harry Met Sally" starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan opens in U.S. theatres.

In 1990 Russian republic president Boris Yeltsin shocks the 28th congress of the Soviet Communist Party by announcing he was resigning his party membership.

In 1991 A Japanese professor who had translated Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses" is found stabbed to death, 9 days after the novel's Italian translator was attacked in Milan.

In 1992 In an emotional farewell speech, Benjamin Hooks, outgoing executive director of the NAACP, urges the group's convention in Nashville to show the world that it remained vital.

In 1993 196 people aere killed when an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale struck northern Japan.

In 1994 Germany rules its combat troops can be sent on U.N. missions abroad with parliamentary approval, reversing policy in effect since end of World War II.

In 1994 President Clinton, visiting Germany, goes to the eastern sector of Berlin, the first president to do so since Harry Truman.

In 1994 Confirmation hearings begin for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Stephen G. Breyer.

In 1995 President Clinton spells out school-prayer guidelines, asserting the First Amendment already guaranteed adequate freedom of religion.

In 1996 Hurricane Bertha hits North Carolina's Cape Fear, before battering a string of coastal towns.

In 1997 In Spain, kidnapped Basque politician Miguel Angel Blanco was found dead shortly after a deadline set by his militant Basque captors.

In 1998 France beats Brazil for its first World Cup soccer championship.

In 2000 In Philadelphia, video from a TV helicopter shows a dozen men, some police officers, brutalizing a black carjacking suspect.

In 2000 New Hampshire Chief Justice David Brock is impeached by the Legislature, the first such action against an official in the state since 1790. (He was later acquitted in a state Senate trial.)

In 2002 The Senate adopts a ban on personal loans from companies to their top officials.

In 2003 The USS Ronald Reagan, the first carrier named for a living president, is commissioned in Norfolk, VA.

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