Today In History...

In 54 The Roman emperor Claudius I dies, after being poisoned by his wife Agrippina.

In 1601 Tycho Brahe, the greatest naked-eye observer, dies in Prague.

In 1775 The U.S. Navy is formed as the Continental Congress orders the construction of a naval fleet.

In 1792 The cornerstone of the executive mansion, later known as the White House, is laid during a ceremony in the District of Columbia.

In 1843 The Jewish organization B'nai Brith is founded in New York.

In 1845 Texas ratifies its state constitution.

In 1860 The first aerial photograph is taken from a balloon over Boston.

In 1943 During World War II, Italy declares war on Germany, it's former Axis partner.

In 1944 During World War II, American troops enter Aachen, Germany.

In 1945 Chocolate manufactuer Milton Hershey dies.

In 1947 "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" premieres.

In 1953 Samuel Bagno patents the burglar alarm/ultrasonic or radio waves.

In 1960 The third presidential campaign debate is broadcast with Republican nominee Richard M. Nixon in Hollywood and Democrat John F. Kennedy in New York.

In 1962 Edward Albee's searing four-character drama "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" opens on Broadway.

In 1969 Soyuz 8 is launched.

In 1971 The first World Series night game is played with Pittsburgh defeating Baltimore, 4-3.

In 1977 Vice Admiral James Stockdale, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, becomes president of the Naval War College in Newport, RI.

In 1979 Steve Martin hosts the first "Saturday Night Live" without John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd.

In 1979 A 256-pound Yo-Yo is dropped from a 150 foot crane in San Francisco.

In 1981 Voters in Egypt participate in a referendum to elect Vice President Hosni Mubarak the new president, one week after the assassination of Anwar Sadat.

In 1982 The International Olympic Committee announces it would restore the two gold medals taken away from Jim Thorpe after he admitted to having been paid to play baseball.

In 1983 President Reagan names William P. Clark to succeed James G. Watt as Interior Secretary.

In 1984 John Henry becomes the first thoroughbred to win $6 million.

In 1984 The space shuttle Challenger and its seven astronauts make a perfect landing at Cape Canaveral, Florida, ending a journey that featured a space walk by an American woman, Kathy Sullivan.

In 1986 President Reagan criticizes Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev for insisting on an end to America's Strategic Defense Initiative, saying that demand had blocked an arms agreement.

In 1987 The U.S. Navy makes the first military use of trained dolphins in the Persian Gulf.

In 1987 Costa Rican President Oscar Arias is named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his peace plan efforts in Central America.

In 1988 Vice President George Bush and Democrat Michael Dukakis meet in their second presidential debate.

In 1989 President Bush calls for the overthrow of Panamanian ruler Manuel Antonio Noriega.

In 1990 Le Duc Tho, co-founder of the Vietnamese Communist Party, dies in Hanoi at age 79.

In 1991 The Senate Judiciary Committee hears conflicting testimony from friends and associates of Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill, the University of Oklahoma law professor who accused Thomas of sexually harassing her.

In 1992 Vice President Quayle and Democrat Al Gore collide in a feisty debate in Atlanta that included Ross Perot's running mate, retired Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale.

In 1992 An Air France supersonic jetliner sets a commercial flight record for circling the globe in 33 hours, one minute.

In 1993 The UN Security Council votes to reimpose sanctions on Haiti unless military leaders there stopped violating a U.N.-brokered accord.

In 1993 An east German who had stabbed tennis star Monica Seles receives a suspended jail term.

In 1994 Pro-British Protestant paramilitaries in Northern Ireland announce a cease-fire matching the Irish Republican Army's 6-week-old truce.

In 1996 House Speaker Newt Gingrich calls on Congress to investigate campaign contributions made to President Clinton's re-election campaign by the Lippo Group, an Indonesian banking conglomerate.

In 1997 President Kim Young-sam's son is sentenced to three years in prison for bribery and tax evasion in South Korea's first criminal case involving a close relative of an incumbent leader.

In 1997 A jet-powered car driven by British Royal Air Force pilot Andy Green tops speeds of 764 mph in Nevada's Black Rock Desert, faster than the speed of sound.

In 1997 In Quebec, Canada, 43 senior citizens and a bus driver are killed when the bus plunges into a ravine.

In 1998 Five U.S. scientists win the Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing ways to analyze molecules in chemical reactions and the Nobel Prize in physics for discovering how electrons can change behavior.

In 1998 For the first time in its 51-year history, the NBA cancels its regular season games because of work stoppage.

In 2001 Ukraine's defense minister and air defense chief offer to resign, conceding that the military was involved in the explosion of a Russian airliner over the Black Sea that killed 78 people.

In 2002 Best-selling historian Stephen E. Ambrose dies at age 66.

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