In 1783 Pilatra deRozier becomes the first man to fly, in a tethered
balloon.
In 1860 11-year-old Grace Bedell of Westfield, NY, writes a letter to
presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln, suggesting he would look
better with a beard.
In 1914 The Clayton Antitrust Act is passed.
In 1917 Mata Hari, a dutch dancer who had spied for the Germans, is executed
by firing squad outside of Paris.
In 1928 The German dirigible Graf Zeppelin lands in Lakehust, New Jersey, on
its first commercial flight across the Atlantic.
In 1937 The Ernest Hemingway novel "To Have And Have Not" is published.
In 1939 New York Municipal Airport, later re-named LaGuardia Airport, is
dedicated in New York City.
In 1940 Charlie Chaplin's first talkie, "The Great Dictator" opens.
In 1945 The former premier of Vichy France, Pierre Laval, is executed.
In 1946 Nazi war criminal Hermann Goering poisons himself, one day before he
was to be executed.
In 1951 "I Love Lucy" premieres on CBS television.
In 1959 The crime drama "The Untouchables" premieres.
In 1964 Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev is removed from office and is
succeeded as premier by Alexei Kosygin and as Communist Party
secretary by Leonid Brezhnev.
In 1965 The first public draft card burning takes place.
In 1966 President Johnson signs a bill creating the Department of
Transportation.
In 1969 Peace demonstrators stage activities across the country, including a
candlelight march around the White House, as part of a moratorium
against the Vietnam War.
In 1976 In the first debate of its kind between vice-presidential
candidates, Democrat Walter F. Mondale and Republican Bob Dole face
off in Houston, Texas.
In 1981 The New York Yankees win the American League pennant, downing the
Oakland A's in game three of their series, 4-0.
In 1985 Franco Modigliani of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is
named the winner of the Nobel Prize for economics.
In 1988 The baby carriage pushing record is set at 350.23 miles in 24 hours.
In 1989 Wayne Gretzky of the Los Angeles Kings surpasses Gordie Howe's
scoring record of 1,850 points, during a game against the Edmonton
Oilers.
In 1990 Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1990 South Africa's Separate Amenities Act, which barred blacks from
public facilities for decades, is formally scrapped.
In 1991 Despite sexual harassment allegations by Anita Hill, the Senate
narrowly confirms the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S.
Supreme Court, by a vote of 52-48.
In 1992 The U.S. State Department acknowledges that it had improperly
handled requests for the passport file of Democratic presidential
nominee Bill Clinton.
In 1993 President Clinton sends 6 warships to the waters off Haiti to
enforce trade sanctions.
In 1994 Democracy is restored to Haiti as Aristide returns after three
years in exile.
In 1995 Six Israeli soldiers are killed in Israeli-occupied southern Lebanon
in an ambush blamed on the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah.
In 1996 CSX Corp. announces plans to buy Conrail Inc. for $8.4 billion to
create the nation's third-largest railroad.
In 1997 Richard Noble drives a British jet-powered car twice the speed of
sound, officially shattering the world land speed record.
In 1999 The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders is named winner of
the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 2000 President Clinton leaves Washington for emergency talks in Egypt
with Israeli and Arab leaders.
In 2001 A letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle tests positive
for anthrax.
In 2001 Bethlehem Steel Corp. files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
In 2002 Five Japanese kidnapping victims who were abducted in their youth
by North Korean spies finally return home after a quarter century.
In 2003 People's Republic of China becomes the third country to launch a
Comments
Post a Comment