Today In History...

   In 1609 Navigator Henry Hudson discovers the island of Manhattan.
   In 1781 Los Angeles is founded by Spanish settlers.
   In 1833 The first newsboy is hired by the New York Sun (Barney Flaherty).
   In 1882 The Pearl Street electric power station, built by Thomas Edison,
           begins operation in New York City.
   In 1886 Apache Indians led by Geronimo surrender to General Nelson Miles at
           Skeleton Canyon in Arizona ending the last major U.S.-Indian war.
   In 1888 George Eastman patents the first roll-film camera and registers his
           trademark:  Kodak.
   In 1893 English author Beatrix Potter first tells the story of Peter Rabbit
           in the form of a picture letter to Noel Moore, the son of Potter's
           former governess.
   In 1894 Some 12,000 tailors in New York City go on strike to protest the
           existence of sweat shops.
   In 1911 Garros sets the world altitude record at 4,250 meters (13,944 feet).
   In 1917 The American expeditionary force in France suffers its first
           fatalities in World War I.
   In 1948 Queen Wilhelmina abdicates the Dutch throne for health reasons.
   In 1950 The first helicopter rescue of an American pilot behind enemy lines.
   In 1951 President Truman makes the first live coast-to-coast TV broadcast
           from the Japanese peace treaty conference in San Francisco.
   In 1951 NBC expands to become a 61-station coast-to-coast network.
   In 1957 Ford Motor Company introduces the ill-fated Edsel, a model which
           proved so unpopular that it was taken off the market in 1959.
   In 1957 Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus calls out the National Guard to
           prevent nine black students from entering Central High School in
           Little Rock.
   In 1964 NASA launches its first Orbital Geophysical Observatory (OGO-1).
   In 1966 "Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon" airs for the first time.
   In 1966 The sitcom "Mister Ed" airs for the last time on CBS-TV.
   In 1966 The legal drama "Perry Mason," airs for the last time on CBS-TV.
   In 1967 The sitcom "Gilligan's Island" airs for the last time on CBS-TV.
   In 1969 The Food And Drug Administration (FDA) issues a report calling birth
           control pills "safe," despite a slight risk of fatal blood-clotting
           disorders.
   In 1971 An Alaska Airlines jet crashes in the mountains near Juneau, killing
           111 people.
   In 1972 American swimmer Mark Spitz is the first athlete to win seven
           Olympic gold medals.
   In 1972 The American Energy Crisis begins when Saudia Arabia reduces oil
           production.
   In 1980 Iraqi troops seize Iranian territory in a border dispute beginning
           the Iraq-Iran War.
   In 1980 The TV crime drama "Barnaby Jones" airs for the last time on CBS-TV.
   In 1981 The French ambassador to Lebanon, Louis Delamare, is killed by four
           gunmen as he is driven to his west Beirut residence.
   In 1983 The barefoot water ski speed record is set at 119mph.
   In 1984 Canada's Progressive Conservatives, led by Brian Mulroney, wins a
           landslide victory in general elections over the Liberal Party of
           Prime Minister John N. Turner.
   In 1986 Security forces in South Africa halt a mass funeral for riot victims
           in Soweto, then swept through the streets, breaking up other
           services and battling gatherings of youths.
   In 1987 The Soviets send 19-year-old Mathias Rust to labor camp for making
           an unauthorized flight across their country and landing in Red
           Square. Rust was released the following August.
   In 1989 The Air Force launches its last Titan Three rocket, which reportedly
           carried a reconnaissance satellite. Since 1964, the Titan Three had
           sent more than 200 satellites into space.
   In 1990 The air evacuation of Western women and children stranded in Iraq
           and Kuwait resumes, with 25 Americans among the nearly 300 who made
           it to Jordan.
   In 1991 South African President F.W. de Klerk proposes a new constitution
           that would allow blacks to vote and govern; the African National
           Congress rejected the plan, charging it was designed to maintain
           white privileges.
   In 1993 Pope John Paul II begins the first papal visit to the former Soviet
           Union as he began a tour of the Baltic republics.
   In 1993 Actor Herve Villechaize (Tatoo of "Fantasy Island") dies in
           Los Angeles at age 50.
   In 1995 The Fourth World Conference on Women opens in Beijing with more than
           4,750 delegates from 181 countries participating.
   In 1995 Attorney William Kunstler, who spoke out for the politically
           unpopular in a controversial career, dies in New York at age 76.
   In 1996 The U.S. fires a new round of cruise missiles into southern Iraq and
           destroys an Iraqi radar site.
   In 1996 Benjamin Netanyahu shakes the hand of Yasser Arafat, a man he once
           condemned as a murderer, in meeting at the Israel-Gaza border.
   In 1996 Whitewater prosecutors have Susan McDougal held in contempt for
           refusing to tell a grand jury whether President Clinton had lied at
           her trial.
   In 1997 A triple suicide bombing in the heart of Jerusalem kills 7,
           including the three assailants.
   In 1998 The International Monetary Fund approves $257 million loans for the
           Ukraine.
   In 1999 Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel and Palestinian leader Yasser
           Arafat sign a breakthrough land-for-security agreement during a
           ceremony in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
   In 1999 Martin Frankel, a Connecticut money manager accused of cheating
           insurance companies in five states out of more than $200 million
           dollars, is arrested in Germany.
   In 2000 French investigators say a stray length of metal which had gashed a
           tire of a supersonic Concorde, leading to a fuel tank fire and the
           plane's fatal crash the previous July, probably came from a
           Continental Airlines plane that had taken off 4 minutes earlier.
   In 2001 Texas Republican Phil Gramm announces that he would leave the U.S.
           Senate at the end of his third term.
   In 2004 Slow-moving Hurricane Frances snaps power lines and whipped the 
           Atlantic coast with winds over 90 mph as it neared Florida. 

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