Today In History...

Today In History...

   In 1521 Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reaches the Philippines,

           where he is killed by natives the following month.

   In 1792 Sweden's King Gustav III is shot and mortally wounded during a

           masquerade party; he died 13 days later.

   In 1802 Congress authorizes the establishment of the U.S. Military Academy

           at West Point, New York.

   In 1827 The first newspaper edited for and by blacks, the "Freedom Journal,"

           is published in New York.

   In 1836 The Republic of Texas approves a constitution.

   In 1850 Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" is published.

   In 1915 The Federal Trade Commission is organized.

   In 1916 U.S. and Canada sign a migratory bird treaty.

   In 1926 Robert Goddard tests the first liquid fuel space rocket.

   In 1935 Adolf Hitler scraps the Treaty of Versailles.

   In 1945 During World War II, the U.S. declares Iwo Jima secured.

   In 1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson makes his "War on Poverty" declaration.

   In 1966 Gemini VIII is launched.

   In 1968 The My Lai Massacre takes place in Vietnam.  American troops,

           commanded by Lt. William L. Calley Jr., carry out the killings of

           347 men, women and children in a undefended village.

   In 1975 U.S. Mariner X makes the third and final fly-by of Mercury.

   In 1978 Soyuz 26 returns to Earth.

   In 1978 Aldo Moro, one of Italy's most influential politicians, is kidnapped

           and later murdered by left-wing urban guerrillas.

   In 1982 Claus Von Bulow is found guilty in Newport, Rhode Island, of charges

           he tried to kill his wife, Martha, with insulin.

   In 1983 Radio and TV star Arthur Godfrey dies in New York at age 79.

   In 1984 William Buckley, CIA station chief in Beirut, is kidnapped; he died

           in captivity more than a year later.

   In 1984 Senator John Glenn dropped out of the Democratic presidential race.

   In 1985 Associated Press Mideast correspondent Terry Anderson is kidnapped

           in Beirut, Lebanon. He is released 7 years later, in December 1991.

   In 1987 Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis announces his candidacy for

           the Democratic presidential nomination.

   In 1988 Former National Security Advisor John Poindexter, fired White House

           aide Oliver North and retired Air Force Major General Richard Secord

           are indicted on charges related to the Iran-Contra affair.

   In 1989 The Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee approves sweeping

           agricultural reforms, and elected the party's 100 members to the

           Congress of People's Deputies, a new legislative body.

   In 1990 South African President F.W. de Klerk announces that exiled African

           National Congress leaders could return home for talks with the

           white-led government.

   In 1991 New York City Mayor David Dinkins is booed as he marched with an

           Irish gay group during the city's St. Patrick's Day parade.

   In 1992 Robert J. Eaton, head of General Motors' profitable European

           operations, joins Chrysler Corp. as Chairman Lee Iacocca's future

           successor.

   In 1993 President Clinton meets with ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand

           Aristide then announced he was sending a special envoy to Haiti to

           seek a return to democracy.

   In 1994 Tonya Harding pleads guilty in covering up the attack on Olympic

           skater Nancy Kerrigan, avoiding jail but drawing a $100,000 fine and

           effectively ending her competitive skating career.

   In 1995 NASA astronaut Norman Thagard becones the first American to visit

           the Russian space station Mir.

   In 1996 For the first time, ordinary citizens are allowed inside the central

           archives of the former East German secret police, the hated Stasi

           security agency.

   In 1997 Jordan's King Hussein visits Israel, with intent on re-establishing

           credibility as a peacemaker.

   In 1998 Rwanda, with 125,000 suspects for 500,000 murders, begins mass

           trials for 1994 genocide.

   In 1998 The Vatican releases a document expressing remorse for the cowardice

           of some Christians during the Holocaust, but defended the actions of

           Pope Pius XII.

   In 1999 The entire 20-member European Commission resigns following

           publication of a critical report on sloppy management and cronyism.

   In 2000 Independent Counsel Robert Ray says he found no credible evidence

           that Hillary Rodham Clinton or senior White House officials sought

           FBI background files of Republicans.

   In 2002 Gunmen kill Archbishop Isaias Duarte Cancino, a prominent critic of

           Colombia's leftist guerrillas, in Cali.

   In 2003 Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein warns that if Iraq is attacked, it

           would take the war anywhere in the world "wherever there is sky,

           land or water."