Today In History...

   In 1680 The Pueblo Indians take possession of Santa Fe, NM, after driving
           out the Spanish.
   In 1831 Former slave Nat Turner leads a violent insurrection against
           slavery in Virginia. (He is later executed.)
   In 1841 John Hampson patents the venetian blind.
   In 1858 The famous debates between Senatorial contenders Abraham Lincoln and
           Stephen Douglas begin.
   In 1878 A group of lawyers, judges and law professors establish the American
           Bar Association at the Saratoga, New York, town hall.
   In 1911 The Leonardo da Vinci painting "Mona Lisa" is stolen from Louvre
           Museum in Paris, France.
   In 1931 Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees hits his 600th home run.
   In 1940 The first contingent of English children arrive in the U.S. to
           escape German air attacks in London during World War II.
   In 1940 Exiled Communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky dies in Mexico City from
           wounds inflicted by an assailant.
   In 1944 The U.S., Britain, the Soviet Union and China open talks at
           Dumbarton Oaks in Washington that helped pave the way for
           establishment of the United Nations.
   In 1945 President Truman ends the Lend-Lease program that had shipped some
           $50 billion in aid to Americn allies during World War II.
   In 1959 Hawaii becomes the 50th U.S. state.
   In 1963 Martial law is declared in South Vietnam as police and army troops
           begin a crackdown on Buddhist anti-government protesters.
   In 1965 Gemini V is launched into earth orbit with 2 astronauts.
   In 1968 William Dana reaches 80 km in the last high-altitude X-15 flight.
   In 1972 The U.S. orbiting astronomy observatory Copernicus is launched.
   In 1981 Convicted spy Christopher Boyce, who had escaped from prison in 1980
           is recaptured in Port Angeles, WA. (Boyce, convicted of selling
           secrets to the Soviets, was the subject of the book "The Falcon and
           the Snowman."
   In 1982 Palestinian terrorists are dispersed from Beirut, Lebanon.
   In 1983 Philippines political opposition leader, Benigno S. Aquino, ending a
           self-imposed exile in the U.S., is shot and killed moments after
           stepping off a plane at Manila International Airport.
   In 1984 Democratic vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro appears
           before reporters in Queens, New York, to field questions about her
           family's finances.
   In 1986 A volcanic eruption in Cameroon releases poisonous gas, killing
           2000.
   In 1987 Sgt. Clayton Lonetree, the first Marine ever court-martialed for
           spying, is convicted in Quantico, VA, of passing secrets to the KGB
           after becoming romantically involved with a Soviet woman while
           serving as a U.S. Embassy guard in Moscow.
   In 1989 The U.S. space probe Voyager II fires its thrusters to bring it
           closer to Neptune's mysterious moon Triton.
   In 1991 The hard-line coup against Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev
           collapses in the face of a popular uprising led by Russian
           federation President Boris N. Yeltsin.
   In 1993 In a serious setback for NASA, engineers lose contact with the Mars
           Observer spacecraft as it was about to reach the Red Planet on a
           $980 million mission. Its fate remains unknown.
   In 1995 ABC News settles a $10 billion libel suit by apologizing to Philip
           Morris Cos. for reporting the tobacco giant had manipulated the
           amount of nicotine in its cigarettes.
   In 1995 A suicide bomber sets off an explosion that tore through two crowded
           Israeli commuter buses, killing five others.
   In 1995 A commuter plane crashes near Carrollton, GA, killing nine people.
   In 1996 President Clinton signs the Health Insurance Portability and
           Accountability Act of 1996, aimed at making health insurance easier
           to obtain and keep.
   In 1997 The Hudson Foods Co. plant in Nebraska closes and agrees to destroy
           some 25 million pounds of hamburger after largest meat recall in
           U.S. history.
   In 1997 Philip Morris Chairman/CEO Geoffrey Bible of says cigarettes "might
           have" killed 100,000 Americans, company's first such acknowledgement
           of possible link between smoking and death.
   In 1998 Former South Africa president P.W. Botha is fined for failing to
           testify about apartheid atrocities.
   In 2000 Rescue efforts to reach a sunken Russian nuclear submarine end with
           divers announcing none of the 118 sailors survived.
   In 2001 Federal authorities working with McDonald's break up a crime ring
           that allegedly rigged their "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" games.

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