Today In History...

In 1693 Dom Perignon introduces champagne.

In 1735 A jury acquits John Peter Zenger of the New York Weekly Journal of a charge of libel brought by the royal governor of New York.

In 1790 The Revenue Cutter Service is formed, the forerunner of the U.S. Coast Guard.

In 1830 Plans for the city of Chicago are layed out.

In 1892 Andrew and Abby Borden are axed to death in their home in Fall River, MA. Sunday school teacher Lizzie Borden, Andrew Borden's daughter from a previous marriage, was accused of the killings, but acquitted at trial.

In 1914 Britain declares war on Germany and the U.S. proclaims its neutrality during World War I.

In 1926 The U.S. purchases the Danish Virgin Islands for $25 million.

In 1925 U.S. marines leave Nicaragua after a 13-year occupation.

In 1944 Nazi police arrest 8 people in Amsterdam, including 14-year-old Anne Frank, whose diary, which was published after her death, became a classic depiction of the Holocaust.

In 1958 The Dumont TV Network is desolved.

In 1962 Jamaica gains its independence from Britain.

In 1964 The bodies of missing civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are found buried inside an earthen dam in Mississippi.

In 1971 The U.S. launches the first satellite into lunar orbit from a manned spacecraft.

In 1977 President Carter signs a measure creating the Department of Energy, the first Cabinet-level department created since 1966.

In 1980 Hurricane "Allen" kills 272 people from Texas to the Carribean.

In 1984 Carl Lewis wins the gold medal in the 100-meter dash at the Los Angeles Olympics, the first of four medals he won altogether.

In 1985 Tom Seaver of the Chicago White Sox gains his 300th victory and Rod Carew of the California Angels gets his 3000th hit.

In 1986 The U.S. Football League suspends the season and folds.

In 1987 The FCC votes, 4-0, to rescind the Fairness Doctrine, which required radio and TV stations to present balanced coverage of controversial issues.

In 1988 U.S. Rep. Mario Biaggi (D-NY) is convicted of charges that included conspiracy, extortion, tax evasion and acceptance of bribes in the Wedtech corruption scandal. (Biaggi was paroled in 1990.)

In 1989 Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani offers to help end the hostage crisis in Lebanon, prompting President Bush to say he was "encouraged."

In 1990 The European community imposes an embargo on Iraqi oil to protest Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

In 1991 The Greek luxury liner Oceanos sinks in heavy seas off SouthAfrica's southeast coast; all 402 passengers and 179 crew members survived.

In 1991 Israeli Cabinet members overwhelmingly back a Middle East peace conference under conditions set by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir.

In 1992 The crew of the space shuttle Atlantis encounters difficulties when it tried to reel out a satellite attached to miles of thin cord as part of an electricity-producing experiment.

In 1993 A federal judge sentences Los Angeles police officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell to 2 1/2 years in prison for violating Rodney King's civil rights.

In 1993 The Senate approves a $5.8 billion-dollar disaster bill for Midwestern flood victims.

In 1994 Serb-dominated Yugoslavia withdraws its support for Bosnian Serbs, sealing the 300-mile border between Yugoslavia and Bosnia.

In 1995 Croat forces launch a massive attack on breakaway Serbs in their self-proclaimed capital of Knin.

In 1996 After 16 days and 271 events, the Olympic games in Atlanta end.

In 1996 State drug enforcement agents in San Francisco raid a club that openly sold marijuana to AIDS and cancer patients.

In 1997 Zoologists announce that they discovered about 30 giant pandas in Gansu, China.

In 1997 After talks break down, the Teamsters go on a 15-day strike against United Parcel Service.

In 1997 Jeanne Calment, the world's oldest person at age 122, dies in a retirement home in Arles, France.

In 1998 Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist clears the way for prosecutors to question White House lawyers about their advice to President Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky case.

In 2001 Thousands of admirers celebrate the 101st birthday of Britain's Queen Mother Elizabeth. (She died the following March.)

In 2001 North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and Russian President Vladimir Putin hold talks in Moscow.

In 2002 A Palestinian suicide bomber blows up a bus in northern Israel during rush hour, killing himself and nine passengers.

In 2004 Richard Smith, a Staten Island ferry pilot, pleads guilty to manslaughter charges in a crash that killed 11 commuters the previous October.

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