Today In History...

In 1787 Congress establishes the Northwest Territory.

In 1793 French revolutionary writer Jean Paul Marat is murdered in his bath by Charlotte Corday.

In 1863 Rioting against the Civil War military draft erupts in New York City; the violence resulted in about 1,000 deaths over 3 days.

In 1865 Horace Greeley advises his readers to "Go West."

In 1878 The Treaty of Berlin amends the terms of the Treaty of San Stefano, which had ended the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78.

In 1919 The first lighter-than-air transatlantic flight is completed.

In 1960 Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy wins the Democratic presidential nomination at his party's convention in Los Angeles.

In 1967 5 days of race-related riots begin in Newark, NJ, killing 27.

In 1972 George McGovern is nominated for president on the first ballot at the Democratic National Convention in Miami, Florida.

In 1974 The Senate Watergate Committee proposes sweeping reforms in campaign procedures in an effort to prevent another Watergate scandal.

In 1977 New York City experiences a 25-hour black-out after lightning strikes upstate power lines.

In 1978 Henry Ford II fires Lee Iacocca as president of Ford Motor Company.

In 1979 A 45-hour siege begins at the Egyptian Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, as 4 Palestinian guerrillas kill 2 security men and seized 20 hostages.

In 1980 A heat wave hits the South recording record highs of 108 degrees at Memphis, Tennessee, and Macon, Georgia.

In 1981 The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to block aerial pesticide spraying against the Mediterranean fruit fly in California.

In 1983 American schoolgirl Samantha Smith, touring the Soviet Union at the invitation of President Yuri V. Andropov, travels to Leningrad, where she places flowers on a World War II memorial.

In 1984 Sergei Bubka of the USSR pole vaults a record 5.89 meters.

In 1985 The New York Yankees retire Roger Maris (#9) and Elston Howard (#32) uniforms.

In 1987 Jury selection begins for the perjury trial of President Reagan's former aide and longtime confidant, Michael K. Deaver. Deaver was later convicted of lying under oath about his lobbying business.

In 1988 Final results of Mexico's recent presidential election are released, giving the victory to the candidate of the governing party.

In 1989 Washington, DC, attorney Thomas L. Root is rescued after ditching his plane into the Atlantic Ocean near the Bahamas.

In 1989 Cuba executes four military officers for conspiring to smuggle drugs to the U.S.

In 1992 Democrats open their 41st national convention at New York's Madison Square Garden.

In 1993 Race car driver Davey Allison dies in Birmingham, AL, of injuries suffered in a helicopter crash.

In 1994 Olympic skater Tonya Harding's ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, is sentenced to two years in prison his role in the attack on Nancy Kerrigan. He only served six months.

In 1994 President Clinton visits flood-stricken Georgia, where he announced more than $60 million in aid for Georgia, Alabama and Florida.

In 1995 About 2,500 workers at the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News go on strike.

In 1996 After battering the Carolinas, a weakened Hurricane Bertha moves north, spawning tornadoes and dumping rain from Maryland to Massachusetts.

In 1998 A jury in Poughkeepsie, NY, rules that the Rev. Al Sharpton and two others had defamed a former prosecutor by accusing him of raping Tawana Brawley.

In 1998 Four young cousins in Gallup, NM, die after becoming trapped in a car trunk.

In 2000 New Hampshire Chief Justice David Brock is impeached by the Legislature, the first such action against an official in the state since 1790. He is later acquitted in a state Senate trial.

In 2002 Photographer Yousuf Karsh dies in Boston at age 93.

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