Today In History

Today In History...

   In 1793 During the French Revolution, King Louis XVI, condemned for treason

           by the National Convention, is executed by the guillotine.

   In 1861 Jefferson Davis of Mississippi and four other Southerners resign

           from the U.S. Senate.

   In 1892 John Couch Adams, English co-discoverer of Neptune, dies.

   In 1908 New York City enacts an ordinance that made smoking in public by

           women punishable by a fine of $5.00 to $25.00 and 10 days in jail.

   In 1915 The Kiwanis Club is formed in Detroit, Michigan.

   In 1924 Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin dies of a stroke at age 54.

   In 1950 A federal jury in New York finds former State Department official

           Alger Hiss guilty of perjury.

   In 1950 George Orwell, author of "1984," dies in London.

   In 1954 The first gas turbine automobile is exhibited in New York City.

   In 1954 The first atomic submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched at Groton,

           Connecticut.

   In 1969 Switzerland had to seal off an underground cavern after a nuclear

           accident.

   In 1976 The supersonic Concorde is put into service by Britain and France.

   In 1977 President Carter pardons almost all Vietnam War draft evaders.

   In 1979 The Pittsburgh Steelers become the first team to win three Super

           Bowls, when they defeat the Dallas Cowboys, 35-31, in Super Bowl

           XIII.

   In 1979 Neptune becomes the outermost planet (Pluto moves closer).

   In 1982 John Henry Abbott, a convict turned author, is found guilty in New

           York of first-degree manslaughter in the stabbing death of waiter

           Richard Adan in 1981.

   In 1986 Thirty people are killed when a car packed with explosives exploded

           on a busy street of Christian east Beirut.

   In 1987 West Germany indicates that extraditing a suspect in the 1985

           hijacking of a TWA jetliner to the U.S. could take longer than

           originally expected.

   In 1988 A study released in the Journal of the American Medical Association

           said the anti-acne drug known as Retin-A could reduce wrinkles.

   In 1990 In the Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, mutinous military cadets fire

           on troops patrolling the capital during a crackdown on a nationalist

           uprising.

   In 1991 During the Persian Gulf War, CBS News correspondent Bob Simon, CBS

           News London bureau chief Peter Bluff, a cameraman and soundman are

           captured by Iraqi forces; they were released March 2.

   In 1992 The U.S. Supreme Court agrees to review a Pennsylvania law imposing

           waiting periods and other restrictions on abortions. The court later

           upheld most of the restrictions while reaffirming womens'

           constitutional right to abortion.

   In 1993 Two U.S. warplanes bomb a defense site in northern Iraq after radar

           was turned on them.

   In 1994 orena Bobbit is found temporarily insane and not guilty of malicious

           wounding for severing her husband's penis by a jury in Manassas, VA.

   In 1995 President Clinton, addressing a meeting of the Democratic National

           Committee, implores members of his party to "bear down and go

           forward" despite the results of the 1994 elections.

   In 1996 With 88 percent of the vote, Yasser Arafat wins first Palestinian

           election.

   In 1997 Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is censured and fined as House

           votes for first time in history to discipline its leader for ethical

           misconduct.

   In 1997 Florida's crop losses from a surprise freeze climb to nearly $300

           million.

   In 1998 Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky says on tape she had

           affair with President Clinton, which he denies.

   In 1998 Pope John Paul II begins a historic visit to Cuba.

   In 1998 Actor Jack Lord ("Hawaii Five-O") dies in Honolulu at age 77.

   In 2000 Grandmothers of Elian Gonzalez fly to U.S. to plead for the boy's

           return to Cuba.

   In 2001 Byron De La Beckwith, a white supremacist convicted three decades

           after the fact for assassinating civil rights leader Medgar Evers,

           dies in Jackson, MS, at age 80.

   In 2003 The Census Bureau announces that Hispanics had surpassed blacks as 

           America's largest minority group. 

   In 2003 A powerful earthquake shakes west-central Mexico, killing 28 people 

           and leaving 10,000 homeless. 

   In 2008 The Eyak language in Alaska becomes extinct as its last native speaker dies.

   In 2016 National Hugging Day.