Today In History...

In 1170 Archbishop Thomas Becket is murdered in Canterbury Cathedral in England.

In 1813 The British burn Buffalo, New York, during the War of 1812.

In 1837 Canadian militiamen destroy the Caroline, a U.S. steamboat docked at Buffalo, New York.

In 1845 Texas becomes the 28th U.S. state.

In 1848 Gas lights are installed at the White House for the first time.

In 1851 The first Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) chapter opens in Boston, MA.

In 1890 The Wounded Knee massacre takes place in South Dakota. 300 Sioux Indians are killed by U.S. troops sent to disarm them.

In 1913 The first movie serial, "The Adventures of Kathlyn," premieres in Chicago, Illinois.

In 1934 Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.

In 1940 During World War II, Germany begins dropping incendiary bombs on London, England.

In 1949 The first UHF TV station begins regular operations in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

In 1952 The first transistorized hearing aid is offered for sale in Elmsford, New York.

In 1975 11 are killed, 75 are hurt, when a terrorist's bomb explodes at LaGuardia Airport in New York City.

In 1983 The Rev. Jesse Jackson leaves New York on his successful mission to Syria to secure the release of U.S. Navy pilot Robert O. Goodman Jr., who had been shot down during a raid in Lebanon.

In 1984 Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi claims victory in parliamentary elections as his Congress Party captures more than a two-thirds majority in the lower house of Parliament.

In 1985 2 days after terrorists murder 20 civilians at the Rome and Vienna airports in Italy, Libya's Khadafi calls them "heroes."

In 1986 Former British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan dies at age 92.

In 1987 Cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko ends a recond 326 days in space.

In 1987 NASA delays the planned June launch of the space shuttle -- the first since the Challenger disaster -- because a motor component failed during a test-firing of the redesigned booster rocket.

In 1988 The FAA, responding to the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, announces tightened security measures for U.S. air carriers at 103 airports in the Middle East and Western Europe.

In 1989 Playwright Vaclav Havel is elected president of Czechoslovakia by the country's Federal Assembly, becoming the first non-communist tohold the post in over forty years.

In 1991 Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russian President Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia would create its own army.

In 1992 Brazilian President Fernando Collor de Mello resigns.

In 1992 New York Governor Mario Cuomo commutes the sentence of Jean Harris, the convicted killer of "Scarsdale Diet" author Herman Tarnower.

In 1992 David and Sharon Schoo of St. Charles, IL, are arrested at O'Hare International Airport as they returned from vacation for leaving their young daughters at home, alone.

In 1992 The United States and Russia announce an agreement on a nuclear arms reduction treaty.

In 1994 U.S. officials confirm the release in North Korea of Army helicopter pilot Bobby Hall, 12 days after he was captured in a shoot-down in which co-pilot David Hilemon was killed.

In 1995 Japan's finance minister announces the resignation of the deputy finance minister over several scandals, including the ministry's cover-up of trading losses at Daiwa Bank's New York office.

In 1996 Government leaders in Guatemala sign an accord ending 36 years of civil conflict.

In 1996 North Korea apologizes for sending a spy submarine into South Korean waters.

In 1997 Hong Kong begins killing 1.4 million chickens to stem the spread of a mysterious bird flu that had already killed four people.

In 2001 A fire sparked by a fireworks explosion in downtown Lima, Peru, kills 274 people.

In 2003 Actor Earl Hindman, who'd played the mostly unseen neighbor Wilson on "Home Improvement," dies at age 61.

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