Today In History...

In 1652 America's first traffic law goes into effect prohibiting riding horses "at the gallop" in the New Amsterdam settlement (New York).

In 1693 The first woman's magazine, "The Ladies' Mercury" is published in London.

In 1844 Mormon leaders Joseph and Hyrum Smith are killed by a mob in Carthage, Illinois.

In 1847 New York and Boston are linked by telegraph wires.

In 1893 The New York stock market crashes.

In 1934 The Federal Savings And Loan Association is created.

In 1942 The FBI announces the capture of eight Nazi saboteurs who had been put ashore from a submarine off New York's Long Island.

In 1944 During World War II, American forces complete their capture of the French port of Cherbourg from the Germans.

In 1945 The Federal Communications Commission allocates 13 channels for television (channel 1 is reallocated for noncommercial use).

In 1950 President Harry Truman orders the Air Force and Navy into the Korean conflict following a call from the UN Security Council for member nations to help South Korea repel an invasion from the North.

In 1955 The first seat belt legislation is enacted in Illinois.

In 1957 500 people are killed by Hurricane Audrey in coastal Texas and Louisiana.

In 1966 The sci-fi soap "Dark Shadows" debuts on ABC-TV.

In 1969 Patrons at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village, clash with police during a raid, an incident considered a landmark of the gay rights movement.

In 1973 Former White House counsel John W. Dean tells the Senate Watergate Committee about the existence of an "enemies list" kept by the White House.

In 1977 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that attorneys may advertise.

In 1978 Soyuz 30 is launched.

In 1980 President Carter signs legislation reviving draft registration.

In 1982 The piano-playing marathon record is set at 53 days.

In 1982 4th Space Shuttle Mission - Columbia 4 launched.

In 1983 World-famous balloonists Maxie Anderson and Don Ida are killed during a race when their helium-filled balloon crashes in a West German forest.

In 1984 The U.S. Supreme Court ends the NCAA monopoly on college football telecasts.

In 1985 The legendary Route 66, which originally stretched from Chicago to Santa Monica, CA, passes into history as officials decertified the road.

In 1986 The International Court of Justice at The Hague rules that the U.S. had broken international law and violated the sovereignty of Nicaragua by aiding the contras.

In 1986 Ireland votes to retain their law against divorce.

In 1987 U.S. Supreme Court Justice Powell retires.

In 1988 Mike Tyson retains the undisputed heavyweight crown as he knocked out Michael Spinks 91 seconds into the first round in Atlantic City.

In 1988 57 people are killed in the collision of two trains in Paris.

In 1989 President Bush announces he will support a Constitutional Amendment to prohibit burning the U.S. Flag.

In 1990 NASA announces that a flaw in the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope was preventing the instrument from achieving optimum focus.

In 1991 U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first black to sit on the nation's highest court, announces his retirement.

In 1991 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that juries considering life or death for convicted murderers may take into account the victim's character and the suffering of relatives.

In 1992 Authorities find the body of kidnapped Exxon executive Sidney J. Reso buried in a makeshift grave in Bass River State Park in New Jersey.

In 1994 U.S. Coast Guard cutters intercept 1,330 Haitian boat people on the high seas in one of the busiest single days since refugees began leaving Haiti following a 1991 military coup.

In 1994 President Clinton replaces White House chief of staff Mack McLarty with budget director Leon Panetta.

In 1995 The space shuttle Atlantis blasts off on a historic flight to link up with Russia's space station Mir and bring home American astronaut Norman Thagard.

In 1995 The San Francisco Chronicle receives a threat from the Unabomber to blow up a plane by the July 4th weekend, prompting tight security measures (the Unabomber later called the threat a prank).

In 1996 A Dallas police officer is charged with trying to hire hit man to kill Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Michael Irvin. (Johnnie Hernandez later pleaded guilty to solicitation of capital murder.)

In 1997 The U.S. Supreme Court throws out a portion of the Brady gun-control law, ruling the federal government could not make local police decide whether people are fit to buy handguns. However, the court left intact the 5-day waiting period for gun purchases.

In 1998 An Englishwoman is impregnated with her dead husband's sperm after 2-year legal battle over her right to the sperm.

In 1998 An earthquake in Ceyhan, Turkey, kills 144 people.

In 1999 Juli Inkster wins the LPGA Championship, becoming the second woman to win the modern career Grand Slam (the first was Pat Bradley).

In 2000 House Republicans allow direct sales of U.S. food to Cuba for the first time in four decades.

In 2001 Actor Jack Lemmon dies of cancer in Los Angeles at age 76.

In 2003 More than 735,000 phone numbers are registered on the first day of a national do-not-call list aimed at blocking unwelcome solicitations from telemarketers.

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