Today In History...

In 1754 Columbia University opens.

In 1784 The U.S. treaty with Great Britain is ratified.

In 1790 President George Washington delivers the first "State of theUnion."

In 1821 The first native-born American saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton, dies.

In 1885 Dr. William W. Grant performs what is believed to be the first appendectomy on Mary Gartside, 22, in Davenport, Iowa.

In 1887 The first around-the-world bicycle trip ends in San Francisco after 2 years and 8 months.

In 1888 Sacramento, CA, sets its all-time snowfall record of 3.5 inches.

In 1896 Utah becomes the 45th U.S. state.

In 1943 Soviet dictator Josef Stalin appears on the cover of Time as the magazine's 1942 Man of the Year.

In 1948 Britain grants independence to Burma.

In 1951 During the Korean conflict, North Korean and Communist Chinese forces capture the city of Seoul.

In 1959 Luna I is the first craft to leave Earth's gravity.

In 1960 French author Albert Camus dies in an automobile accident at age46.

In 1962 First unmanned subway train to run automatically opens in New York.

In 1964 Russia buys wheat from the U.S. for the first time.

In 1964 Pope Paul VI begins a visit to the Holy Land as he arrived in Jerusalem.

In 1965 Poet, T.S. Eliot dies in London at age 76.

In 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson outlines the goals of his "Great Society" in his State of the Union Address.

In 1974 President Nixon refuses to hand over tape recordings and documents subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.

In 1981 The first successful "mammal cloning" takes place when scientists duplicate three mice.

In 1984 Navy Lt. Robert O. Goodman Jr., released the day before by Syria, receives a hero's welcome from President Reagan.

In 1985 Ethiopia condemns the evacuation of Ethiopian Jews to Israel, a day after Israel reluctantly acknowledged it had mounted the relocation effort in previous months.

In 1987 16 people are killed when an Amtrak train bound from Washington to Boston collides with Conrail engines approaching from a side track in Chase, Maryland.

In 1988 Drinking water begins to dry up in Pittsburgh suburbs because of a massive diesel oil spill two days earlier that fouled the Monongahela and Ohio rivers.

In 1989 2 U.S. Navy F-14s shoot down 2 Libyan Mig-23 fighter jets in international waters after they "approached with hostile intent."

In 1990 Charles Stuart, who claimed to be wounded and his wife shot dead by a robber, leaps to his death off a Boston Harbor bridge after he himself became a suspect in the crime.

In 1990 Deposed Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega is arraigned in federal district court in Miami on drug-trafficking charges.

In 1993 President-elect Clinton speaks by telephone with Russian President Boris Yeltsin about the newly signed START II treaty.

In 1994 Dr. Jack Kevorkian is charged in November 1993 suicide of bone cancer patient.

In 1995 The 104th U.S. Congress convenes, the first under Republican control since Eisenhower era. Newt Gingrich was elected speaker of the House.

In 1997 Real estate mogul Harry Helmsley died in Scottsdale, AZ, at age 87.

In 1998 Israel's foreign minister David Levy resigns, denouncing the government of Benjamin Netanyahu for abandoning peace process with the Arabs.

In 1999 Europe's new currency, the euro, got off to a strong start on its first trading day, rising against the dollar on world markets.

In 1999 Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura is sworn in as Minnesota's 37th governor.

In 2000 Former presidential rival Elizabeth Dole endorses fellow Republican George W. Bush.

In 2000 The Nasdaq composite index suffers its worst point loss, falling more than 225 points. Dow Jones plummets more than 350 points.

In 2003 Oscar-winning cinematographer Conrad L. Hall dies at age 76.

In 2004 Wade Boggs is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

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