Today In History...

   In 1866 President Andrew Johnson formally declares the Civil War is over,
           even though the fighting had stopped months earlier.
   In 1914 German forces occupy Brussels, Belgium, during World War I.
   In 1918 Britain opens its offensive on the Western front during World War I.
   In 1920 America's first commercial radio station, "8MK" later "WWJ," begins
           daily broadcasts in Detroit, MI.
   In 1940 Leon Trotsky is assassinated in Mexico City by agents of Stalin.
   In 1940 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill pays tribute to the Royal
           Air Force, saying, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much
           owed by so many to so few.
   In 1948 The U.S. orders the expulsion of the Soviet Consul General in New
           York, Jacob Lomakin, accusing him of attempting to force the return
           of two consular employees to the Soviet Union against their will.
   In 1953 The Soviet Union publicly acknowledges the test detonation of a
           hydrogen bomb.
   In 1955 The first airplane to exceed 1800 mph - H.A. Hanes, Palmdale CA.
   In 1955 Hundreds are killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco and Algeria.
   In 1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson signs an anti-poverty measure totaling
           nearly $1 billion.
   In 1968 650,000 Soviet-block troops invade Czechoslovakia to crush the
           "Prague Spring" liberalization drive of Alexander Dubcek's regime.
   In 1974 The first major league pitch faster than 100mph is thrown by
           27-year-old California Angel Nolan Ryan.
   In 1975 Viking I is launched towards an orbit around Mars.
   In 1977 Voyager II is launched for fly-by of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,
           Neptune and Pluto.
   In 1979 Swimmer Diana Nyad succeeds in her third attempt at swimming from
           the Bahamas to Florida, arriving at Juno Beach in 27 hours, 38
           minutes.
   In 1980 The U.N. Security Council votes, 14-0, (U.S. abstains) to condemn
           Israel's declaration that all of Jersualem was its capital.
   In 1981 Michael Devine becomes the 10th Irish nationalist hunger-striker to
           die at the Maze prison in Northern Ireland.
   In 1985 Rev. Jerry Falwell called South Africa's Bishop Desmond Tutu "a
           phony."
   In 1986 Postal employee Patrick Sherrill goes on a deadly rampage at a post
           office in Edmond, OK, shooting 14 fellow workers to death before
           killing himself.
   In 1987 A Washington, DC, federal appeals court rejected Lt. Col. Oliver
           North's argument that the independent counsel investigating the
           Iran-Contra affair was operating under an invalid Justice Department
           regulation.
   In 1988 8 British soldiers are killed by an Irish Republican Army land mine
           that destroyed a military bus near Omagh, in Northern Ireland.
   In 1988 Jack Nicklaus' tournament winnings pass the $5 million level.
   In 1990 Three former Northwest Airlines pilots are convicted in Minneapolis
           of flying while intoxicated.
   In 1991 More than 100,000 people rally outside the Russian Parliament
           building as protests against the Soviet coup increased. President
           Bush said he would never deal with the coup leaders.
   In 1992 The Republican National Convention in Houston renominated President
           Bush and Vice President Quayle.
   In 1993 Conjoined twins Angela and Amy Lakeberg are separated at The
           Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in an operation that sacrified
           Amy. Angela died in June 1994.
   In 1994 President Clinton slaps new sanctions on Cuba that prohibit payments
           by Cuban-Americans to their relatives back home.
   In 1994 Benjamin Chavis Jr. is fired as head of the NAACP after a turbulent
           16-month tenure.
   In 1995 A passenger train rams another that had stopped on the tracks after
           hitting a cow in northern India, killing 348 people.
   In 1995 The remnants of an American peace delegation head home from Bosnia
           with the bodies of three diplomats killed in an accident.
   In 1996 President Clinton approves the first minimum-wage increase in five
           years, raising the hourly minimum by 90 cents to $5.15 per hour over
           thirteen months.
   In 1997 Susan McDougal is sentenced in Little Rock, AR, to two years in
           prison in the Whitewater fraud case.
   In 1998 The U.S. launches missile strikes, targeting terrorist camps in
           Afghanistan, and a chemical plant in Sudan.
   In 1998 Canada's Supreme Court says Quebec cannot secede without federal
           government consent.
   In 1998 The UN Security Council extends trade sanctions against Iraq for
           blocking arms inspections.
   In 1999 The CIA pulls the security clearances for former Director John
           Deutch for keeping secret files on an unsecured home computer.
   In 2000 Verizon and unions representing 50,000 workers reach a tentative
           agreement on a new 3-year contract ending a two-week strike.
   In 2000 Tiger Woods wins the PGA Championship, becoming the first player
           since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win three majors in one year.
   In 2001 Sir Fred Hoyle, the astronomer who coined the term "Big Bang" but
           never accepted that theory for the origin of the universe, dies in
           Bournemouth, England, at age 86.
   In 2002 Without firing a shot, masked German police commandos free two
           senior diplomats from armed men who had stormed the Iraqi embassy.