Today In History...

Today In History...

   In 1683 13 families from Krefeld, Germany, arrive in present-day

           Philadelphia to begin Germantown, one of America's oldest

           settlements.

   In 1783 The first self-winding clock is patented.

   In 1863 Dr. Charles H. Sheppard opens the first public bath in Brooklyn, NY.

   In 1884 The Naval War College is established in Newport, Rhode Island.

   In 1889 Thomas Edison shows his first motion picture.

   In 1889 The Moulin Rouge in Paris first opens its doors to the public.

   In 1891 Charles Stewart Parnell, the "Uncrowned King of Ireland," dies in

           Brighton, England.

   In 1892 Poet Alfred Lord Tennyson dies in Haslemere, England, at age 83.

   In 1927 "The Jazz Singer" starring Al Jolson, the first movie with a

           soundtrack, premieres.

   In 1939 In an address to the Reichstag, Adolf Hitler denies having any

           intention of war against France and Britain.

   In 1949 President Truman signs the Mutual Defense Assistance Act, totaling

           $1.3 billion in military aid to NATO countries.

   In 1949 American-born Iva Toguri D'Aquino, convicted of being Japanese

           wartime broadcaster "Tokyo Rose," is sentenced in San Francisco to

           10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

   In 1959 Soviet Luna 3, the first successful photographic spacecraft, impacts

           on the moon.

   In 1973 Egypt and Syria invade Israel beginning The Yom Kippur War.

   In 1976 In his second debate with Jimmy Carter, President Ford asserts that

           there was "no Soviet domination of eastern Europe." Ford later

           conceded he had misspoke.

   In 1979 Pope John Paul II, on a week-long U.S. tour, becomes the first

           pontiff to visit the White House.

   In 1981 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat is shot to death by Muslim

           fundamentalists while reviewing a military parade.

   In 1983 Cardinal Terence Cooke, the spiritual head of the Archdiocese of New

           York, dies at age 62.

   In 1984 Astronaut Sally K. Ride, aboard the space shuttle Challenger,

           secures a balky antenna with the craft's robot arm.

   In 1986 A crippled Soviet nuclear submarine sinks in the Atlantic Ocean

           about 1,200 miles east of New York.

   In 1987 The Dow Jones average drops 91 points, at the time the biggest loss

           ever.

   In 1987 The Senate Judiciary Committee votes, 9-5, against the nomination of

           Robert H. Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court, and both supporters and

           opponents predicted rejection by the full Senate.

   In 1989 Actress Bette Davis dies in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, at age 81.

   In 1991 Reports surfaced that a former personal assistant to Supreme Court

           nominee Clarence Thomas, University of Oklahoma law professor Anita

           Hill, had accused Thomas of sexually harassing her.

   In 1991 CNN obtains and airs a videotape made in Beirut, Lebanon, of

           American hostage Terry Anderson, who quoted his captors as saying

           they would have "very good news."

   In 1992 Ross Perot appears in a paid, 30-minute broadcast on CBS-TV in which

           he appealed for Americans to join his independent bit for president.

   In 1992 The UN Security Council votes unanimously to establish a war crimes

           commission for Bosnia-Herzegovina.

   In 1992 President Bush appoints Mary Fisher to the National Commission on

           AIDS, replacing Magic Johnson.

   In 1993 Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chief Yasser Arafat

           hold their first official meeting in Cairo, Egypt, to begin work on

           realizing terms of the Israeli-PLO accord.

   In 1993 Basketball superstar Michael Jordan announces his retirement from

           the Bulls. (He returned to the Bulls in 1995.)

   In 1995 Boeing Co.'s largest group of union workers strikes after voting

           down a new three-year contract offer.

   In 1996 President Clinton and Senator Bob Dole meet in Hartford, CT, for the

           first presidential debate.

   In 1997 American Dr. Stanley B. Prusiner wins the Nobel Peace Prize in

           medicine for discovering new type of germ.

   In 1997 The space shuttle Atlantis returns to Earth, bringing home American

           astronaut Michael Foale after more than four months aboard the

           Russian space station Mir.

   In 2000 Slobodan Milosevic concedes defeat in Yugoslavia.

   In 2001 Cal Ripken plays his last game in the major leagues.

   In 2002 Pope John Paul II elevates to sainthood Josemaria Escriva de 

           Balaguer, the Spanish priest who founded the conservative Catholic 

           organization Opus Dei. 

   In 2002 Prince Claus, the German-born husband of Queen Beatrix of the 

           Netherlands, dies in Amsterdam at age 76. 

   In 2003 American Paul Lauterbur & Briton Peter Mansfield win the Nobel Prize

           for medicine for discoveries that led to magnetic resonance imaging.