Today In History...

In 1832	Charles Carroll, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, dies at age 95.
In 1832	The first horse-drawn streetcar debuts in New York City.
In 1851	Herman Melville's novel "Moby Dick" is first published.
In 1881	Charles J. Guiteau goes on trial for assassinating President Garfield. Guiteau is convicted and hanged the following year.
In 1889	Inspired by Jules Verne, New York World reporter Nellie Bly set out to travel around the world in fewer than 80 days. She succeeded, making the trip in 72 days.
In 1896	The power plant at Niagara Falls begins operation.
In 1900	Watertown, NY, is paralyzed by 45 inches of snow in 24 hours.
In 1910	The first airplane flight from the deck of a ship is made.
In 1922	The British Broadcasting Corporation begins domestic radio service.
In 1935	President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaims the Philippines islands a free commonwealth.
In 1940	During World War II, German bombers destroy most of the Englishtown of Coventry.
In 1942	War hero, Eddie Rickenbacker is rescued from the South Pacific.
In 1943	President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his joint chiefs narrowlyescape disaster in the Atlantic while sailing to the Tehran conference aboard the U.S. battleship Iowa. An escort ship accidentally fireda live-torpedo which exploded in the Iowa's wake.
In 1968	Yale University announces it was going co-educational.
In 1969	Lightning hits Apollo XII as it blasted off for a trip to the moon from Cape Kennedy, but it keeps flying.
In 1972	Dow Jones closes above 1,000 for the first time at 1003.16.
In 1973	Britain's Princess Anne marries commoner Captain Mark Phillips in Westminister Abbey. (They divorced in 1992.)
In 1981	Second Space Shuttle Mission - Columbia 2 returns to Earth.
In 1983	President and Mrs. Reagan return from a week-long tour of Asia.
In 1984	Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery pluck a second satellite from orbit and secured it in the spacecraft's cargo bay, the second successful salvage mission in two days.
In 1985	A Colombian volcano kills over 20,000 people.
In 1986	The Securities and Exchange Commission imposes a record $100million penalty against inside-trader Ivan F. Boesky and barred him from working again in the securities industry.
In 1988	Israeli President Chaim Herzog formally asks Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir to form a new government.
In 1989	The U.S. Navy, alarmed over a recent string of serious accidents, orders an unprecedented 48-hour stand-down.
In 1985	British commentator Malcolm Muggeridge dies at age 87.
In 1985	Simon and Schuster announces it had dropped plans to publish the controversial Bret Easton Ellis novel "American Psycho."
In 1989	The U.S. Navy, alarmed over a recent string of serious accidents, orders an unprecedented 48-hour stand-down.
In 1990	British commentator Malcolm Muggeridge dies at age 87.
In 1990	Simon & Schuster announces it would not publish the controversial Bret Easton Ellis novel "American Psycho."
In 1991	U.S. and British authorities announce indictments against twoLibyan intelligence officials in connection with the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.
In 1991	Fired postal employee Thomas McIlvane storms the Royal Oak Post Office in Michigan, killing 4 workers before killing himself.
In 1993	Residents of Puerto Rico vote in a plebiscite to maintain the island's existing U.S. commonwealth status, derailing the effortsof those favoring statehood.
In 1994	Sweden votes to join European Union.
In 1994	U.S. experts visit North Korea's main nuclear complex for firsttime under an accord aimed at opening such sites to outside inspections.
In 1994	Heavy rains and flooding from Tropical Storm Gordon sweep across Haiti, killing several hundred people.
In 1995	The U.S. government institutes a partial shutdown, closing national parks and museums while government offices operate with skeleton crews.
In 1996	Federal police and army troops score 1996's largest cocaineseizure, intercepting a plane carrying more than 1 1/2 tons of the drug near La Trinidad, 750 miles northwest of Mexico City.
In 1998	Iraq allows UN weapons inspections to resume, backing down in a face-off with the U.S.
In 1999	The UN imposed sanctions on Afghanistan for refusing to hand over suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden.
In 2000	Pioneering CBS Radio newsman Robert Trout dies at age 91.