Today In History...

In 30 -BC- Cleopatra of Egypt commits suicide by letting an asp bite her.

In 1645 Dutch and American Indians sign make a treaty of peace at New Amsterdam, New York.

In 1850 Honolulu, Hawaii, becomes a city.

In 1862 The South wins the Second Battle of Bull Run at Manassas, Virginia, during the Civil War.

In 1895 Compulsory Roman Catholic education begins in Belgian state schools.

In 1901 Hubert Cecil Booth patents the vacuum cleaner.

In 1905 Ty Cobb makes his major league batting debut, playing for the Detroit Tigers (against the New York Yankees).

In 1916 Turkey declares war on Russia.

In 1918 Czechoslovakia becomes an independent republic.

In 1937 Heavyweight Joe Louis knocks out Tommy Farr in New York City.

In 1930 New York Yankee Atley Donald pitches a baseball a record 94.7 mph.

In 1941 The Nazi siege of Lenningrad begins during World War II.

In 1945 General Douglas MacArthur lands in Japan, and set up Allied occupation headquarters.

In 1951 The U.S. and the Philippines sign a mutual defense pact.

In 1956 A white mob prevents enrollment of black youths at a high school in Mansfield, Texas.

In 1960 East Germany imposes a partial blockade of West Berlin.

In 1961 J.B. Parsons becomes the first black district court judge.

In 1963 The hotline communications link between Washington and Moscow goes into operation.

In 1966 The sitcom "McHale's Navy" airs for the last time on ABC-TV.

In 1967 The U.S. Senate confirms Thurgood Marshall as the first black Supreme Court Justice.

In 1974 The sitcom "The Brady Bunch" airs for the last time on ABC-TV.

In 1976 Tom Brokaw becomes the news anchor of the "Today Show" on NBC.

In 1979 Hurricane David begins a 1100 fatality, week-long attack on the Caribbean and Eastern U.S. coast.

In 1979 In the first recorded occurrence, a comet hits the sun.

In 1979 President Carter is attacked by a rabbit on a canoe trip in Plains, Georgia.

In 1980 The Polish government recognizes Solidarity.

In 1981 Iran's president and prime minister are killed when a bomb explodes in government offices in Tehran.

In 1983 Guion S. Bluford becomes the first black American astronaut to travel in space, flying aboard the shuttle Challenger.

In 1983 The "Three Stooges" receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In 1984 Following three postponements over two months, the space shuttle Discovery finally blasts off on its maiden voyage, deploying the first of three communications satellites from its cargo bay after several hours in orbit.

In 1986 Soviet authorities arrest Nicholas Daniloff, the Moscow correspondent for U.S. News & World Report, after he was handed a package by a Russian acquaintance.

In 1987 200,000 South African miners end a 3-week-old strike.

In 1987 Ben Johnson of Canada runs 100 meters in 9.83 setting a world record while Stefka Kostadinova of Bulgaria sets the high jump women's record at 6'10".

In 1988 Tennis star Chris Everett weds skier Andy Mills.

In 1989 The U.S. State Department advises Americans to leave Columbia after 12 days of drug violence.

In 1989 Director Roman Polanski marries actress Emmanuelle Seigner.

In 1989 "Hotel Queen" Leona Helmsley is convicted of evading $1.2 million in income taxes, but acquitted her of extortion. (Helmsley ended up serving 18 months in prison.)

In 1990 UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar arrives in Jordan to try to mediate the Persian Gulf crisis.

In 1990 Azerbaijan declares its independence from the Soviet Union.

In 1993 Israel's Cabinet approves a framework for Palestinian autonomy in the occupied territories.

In 1993 Robert Malval is installed as prime minister of Haiti during a ceremony at the Haitian Embassy in Washington.

In 1993 "The Late Show with David Letterman" premieres on CBS-TV.

In 1994 Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus in 1955 helped touch off the civil rights movement, is robbed and beaten in her apartment.

In 1995 The West pounds the Bosnian Serbs with artillery and air attacks in hopes of bludgeoning them into serious peace talks.

In 1996 A commercial expedition to raise part of the sunken British luxury liner Titanic fails when nylon lines being used to lift a 21-ton section of the hull snapped, sending it back to the bottom of the
North Atlantic.

In 1997 Philip Noel Johnson, an armored car driver believed to have taken $22 million in the biggest heist in U.S. history, is arrested at Texas border.

In 1997 Britain's Princess Diana dies in a crash in Paris after her car is pursued by photographers.

In 1999 Residents of East Timor vote for independence from Indonesia in a UN-sponsored ballot.

In 2000 During a visit to Colombia, President Clinton delivers a $1.3 billion aid package to help defeat drug traffickers.

In 2002 With just hours to spare, baseball averted a strike; it was the first time since 1970 that players and owners agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement without a work stoppage.

In 2003 Actor Charles Bronson ("Death Wish") dies at age 81.

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