Today In History...

Today In History...

   In 1504 Christopher Columbus, stranded in Jamaica during his fourth voyage

           to the West, used a correctly predicted lunar eclipse to frighten

           hostile natives into providing food for his crew.

   In 1796 President Washington proclaims Jay's Treaty, which settled some

           outstanding differences with Britain, in effect.

   In 1880 The Gotthard railway tunnel between Switzerland and Italy opens.

   In 1892 The U.S. and Britain agree to submit to arbitration their dispute

           over seal-hunting rights in the Bering Sea.

   In 1904 President Theodore Roosevelt appoints a 7-member commission to

           expedite the Panama Canal.

   In 1906 Ladies Home Journal reports that well bred ladies do not wear

           perfume.

   In 1920 Czechoslovakia becomes an an independent nation.

   In 1936 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Second Neutrality Act,

           banning all loans to bellgerents.

   In 1940 "Gone With The Wind" wins the Best Picture Oscar for 1939.

   In 1948 Thirty British soldiers are killed by terrorist bomb in Palestine.

   In 1948 Communists seize control of Czechoslovakia.

   In 1952 New York City installs the first "Walk" lights on Times Square.

   In 1956 President Eisenhower announces he will run for a second term.

   In 1956 An Islamic Republic is proclaimed in Pakistan.

   In 1956 A Federal court rules that the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa

           must readmit Miss Autherine Lucy, their first black student.

   In 1960 The first Playboy Club, featuring waitresses clad in "bunny"

           outfits, opens in Chicago.

   In 1968 Senator Javits calls for the U.S. to get out of Vietnam.

   In 1968 The discovery of the first "pulsar," a star which emits regular

           radio waves, is announced by Dr. Jocelyn Burnell in Cambridge,

           England.

   In 1968 President Lyndon B. Johnson's Commission on Civil Disorders warns

           that racism was causing America to move "toward societies, one

           black, one white -- separate and unequal."

   In 1972 Union leader Cesar Chavez reaches agreement with Florida growers.

   In 1972 Hank Aaron signs a contract with the Atlanta Braves that made him

           the first player to receive $200,000 a year.

   In 1980 Former Israeli Foreign Minister Yigal Allon, who had played an

           important role in Israel's fight for independence, dies at age 61.

   In 1984 Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau resigns after 15 years in

           power.

   In 1988 South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu is arrested while kneeling

           near Parliament with a petition against government bans on

           anti-apartheid groups.

   In 1988 New York City Mayor Ed Koch calls President Ronald Reagan a "wimp"

           when it came to the war on drugs.

   In 1992 Muslims and Croats in Bosnia-Herzegovina begin casting ballots in an

           independence referendum. The Serbs boycotted the vote, calling it

           illegal.

   In 1996 Television and entertainment industry executives meet with President

           Clinton at the White House, where they promised to devise a TV

           ratings system.

   In 1996 Daniel Green is convicted in Lumberton, North Carolina, of murdering

           James R. Jordan, the father of basketball star Michael Jordan.

   In 1996 A Peruvian commercial jet crashes in the Andes, killing all 123

           people on board.

   In 2004 Leap Year Day. Observed every four years (except those years that

           are divisible by 100 and not by 400) to keep the calendar in sync

           with the sun.