Today In History...

Today In History...

   In 1783 Britain declares a formal cessation of hostilities against its

           former colony, the United States of America.

   In 1789 Electors unanimously choose George Washington as the first president

           of the United States.

   In 1801 John Marshall is sworn in as chief justice of the United States.

   In 1847 The first U.S. Telegraph Company is established in Maryland.

   In 1861 Delegates from six southern states meet in Montgomery, AL, to form

           the Confederate States of America.

   In 1887 Interstate Commerce Act authorizes federal regulation of railroads.

   In 1927 The first talking film, "The Jazz Singer" starring Al Jolson, is

           released.

   In 1932 The first Winter Olympics are held in Lake Placid, NY.

   In 1936 First radioactive substance produced synthetically - radium E.

   In 1938 The play "Our Town" by Thornton Wilder opens on Broadway.

   In 1941 The United Service Organizations (USO) is founded.

   In 1945 President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston

           Churchill and Soviet Leader Josef Stalin begin a wartime conference

           in Yalta, USSR.

   In 1948 The island nation of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) becomes an independent

           dominion within the British Commonwealth.

   In 1957 First electric portable typewriter is placed on sale in Syracuse.

   In 1974 Patricia Hearst is kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army from

           her apartment in Berkeley, California.

   In 1975 A 7.5 earthquake in Guatemala and Honduras kills over 22,000 people.

   In 1977 11 people are killed when 2 cars of a Chicago Transit Authority

           train fall off elevated tracks and collide with another train.

   In 1980 Abolhassan Bani-Sadr is installed as president of Iran by the

           Ayatollah Khomeini.

   In 1982 President Reagan announces a plan to eliminate medium-range nuclear

           missiles in Europe.

   In 1985 20 countries excluding the U.S. sign an UN treaty banning torture.

   In 1986 President Reagan, in his fifth State of the Union address,

           proclaimed "a Great American Comeback" from years of economic woes.

   In 1988 Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole twice confronts Vice President

           George Bush on the floor of the Senate, accusing his GOP

           presidential rival of condoning a campaign attack that amounted to

           "grovelling in the mud."

   In 1990 Hundreds of thousands of cheering protesters fill Moscow's Red

           Square demanding an end to Communist rule.

   In 1990 Nine people are killed as guerrillas attack a bus carrying Israeli

           tourists near Cairo, Egypt.

   In 1991 Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani offers to hold talks with Iraq

           and the U.S. in an attempt to mediate an end to the Gulf War.

   In 1992 President Bush defends his economic recovery plan before a National

           Grocers Association meeting in Orlando, Florida.

   In 1993 A jury in Atlanta finds General Motors negligent in the fuel-tank

           design of a pickup truck and awarded $105.2 million to the parents

           of a teen-ager killed in a fiery 1989 crash.

   In 1995 A standoff between the U.S. and China escalates into a trade war,

           with each country ordering stiff tariffs against the other.

   In 1996 A Colombian cargo plane in Paraguay catches fire shortly after

           takeoff, killing at least 24 people when it crashes into houses in

           suburban neighborhood.

   In 1997 A civil jury in Santa Monica, CA, finds O.J. Simpson liable for the

           deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald

           Goldman, awarding $8.5 million in compensatory damages to Goldman's

           parents.

   In 1997 73 Israeli soldiers are killed in the collision of two helicopters.

   In 1998 An earthquake in Afghanistan kills at least 4,000.

   In 2002 President Bush proposes a $2.3 trillion budget, including billions

           for fighting terrorism.

   In 2003 President Bush visits the Johnson Space Center in Houston, where he 

           led a tribute to the lost crew of the shuttle Columbia and 

           rededicated the nation to space travel.