Today In History...

Today In History...

   In 1621 The Pilgrims and Indians make a treaty.

   In 1790 Thomas Jefferson reports to President George Washington in New York

           as the new secretary of state.

   In 1791 Hopley Yeaton is commisioned as the first U.S. naval officer.

   In 1804 The French civil code, the "Code Napoleon," is adopted.

   In 1859 The first Zoological Society is incorporated in Philadelphia.

   In 1871 Journalist Henry M. Stanley begins his famous expedition to Africa

           to locate the missing Scottish missionary David Livingstone.

   In 1890 Ellen Shannon is burned to death when a lamp explodes that was

           filled with R.E. Danford's non-explosive burning fluid.

   In 1881 The famous 20-year-long Hatfield and McCoy feud ends.

   In 1918 During World War I, Germany launched the Somme Offensive, hoping to

           break through the Allied line before American reinforcements could

           arrive.

   In 1924 The Massachusetts Investors Trust is the first mutual fund set up

           in the U.S. in Boston.

   In 1932 Tornados kill 232 people in Alabama.

   In 1940 A new government is formed in France by Paul Reynaud, who became

           prime minister, succeeding Edouard Daladier.

   In 1944 Actor/comedian Charlie Chaplin goes on trial in Los Angeles, accused

           of transporting former protegee Joan Barry across state lines for

           immoral purposes. Chaplin was acquitted, but he lost a paternity

           suit despite tests showing he wasn't the father of Barry's child.

   In 1945 During World War II, Allied bombers begin four days of raids over

           Germany.

   In 1946 The United Nations sets up temporary headquarters at Hunter College

           in New York.

   In 1951 Julius & Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of passing U.S. atomic

           secrets to the Soviet Union.

   In 1952 Tornados kill 208 in Arkansas, Missouri and Tennessee.

   In 1960 Some 70 people are killed in Sharpeville, South Africa, when police

           fired on demonstrators.

   In 1963 By the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, Alcatraz federal

           penitentiary in San Francisco Bay closes.

   In 1965 More than 3000 civil rights demonstrators led by the Dr. Martin

           Luther King Jr. begin their march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

   In 1965 U.S. Ranger IX is launched and takes 5,814 pictures before finally

           impacting on the moon.

   In 1966 The TV medical drama "Ben Casey" airs for the last time on ABC-TV.

   In 1972 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that states may not require one-year

           residency in order to vote.

   In 1979 The Egyptian Parliament unanimously approves a peace treaty with

           Israel.

   In 1983 President Reagan chooses former EPA adminstrator William D.

           Ruckelshaus to again head the Enviromental Protection Agency.

   In 1985 Police in Langa, South Africa, open fire on blacks marching to mark

           the 25th anniversary of the Sharpeville shootings, killing at least

           21 demonstrators.

   In 1986 The presidential commission investigating the Challenger disaster

           viewed footage of the space shuttle's fatal launch the previous

           January; the film revealed a flame from a booster rocket leak

           triggered the explosion.

   In 1987 Televangelist Oral Roberts announces he must raise 8 million

           dollars or God would "call him home."

   In 1989 A Trident 2 missile explodes seconds after being test-fired from a

           submarine for the first time.

   In 1990 Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev increases pressure on the

           breakaway republic of Lithuania, ordering its citizens to turn in

           their guns.

   In 1990 U.S. Secretary of State James Baker meets black nationalist leader

           Nelson Mandela in Namibia.

   In 1991 A UN Security Council panel lifts the food embargo on Iraq.

   In 1991 Test results released in Los Angeles showed that Rodney King, the

           motorist whose beating by police was videotaped by a bystander, had

           marijuana and alcohol in his system following his arrest.

   In 1992 President George Bush and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl meet at

           Camp David, Maryland.

   In 1994 "Schindler's List" wins the Oscar for Best Picture, Tom Hanks wins

           Best Actor for "Philadelphia," Holly Hunter wins Best Actress and

           Steven Spielberg is named Best Director for "Schindler's List."

   In 1994 Actor Macdonald Carey dies in Beverly Hills, CA, at age 81.

   In 1995 Thousands of police in gas masks raid offices of a secretive

           religious group across Japan in connection with nerve-gas attack on

           Tokyos' subways that killed 12 people and sickened thousands.

   In 1996 General Motors Corp. and United Auto Workers reach settlement in

           17-day brake-factory strike that idled more than 177,000 employees.

   In 1997 President Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin wrap up their

           summit in Helsinki, Finland, still deadlocked over NATO expansion.

   In 1997 A suicide bomber blows himself up in Tel Aviv, killing three Israeli

           women.

   In 1998 Pope John Paul II begins a visit to Nigeria with the Vatican

           pressing the African nation's military regime to release dozens of

           prisoners, including prominent opposition figures and journalists.

   In 1999 Israel's Supreme Court rejects a final effort to have American

           teen-ager Samuel Sheinbein returned to the U.S. to face murder

           charges.

   In 1999 "Shakespeare in Love" wins seven Oscars, including Best Picture and

           Best Actress for Gwyneth Paltrow; Roberto Benigni wins Best Actor

           for "Life is Beautiful," while Steven Spielberg won Best Director

           for "Saving Private Ryan."

   In 2000 A divided U.S. Supreme Court rules the government lacked authority

           to regulate tobacco as an addictive drug, throwing out the Clinton

           administration's main anti-smoking initiative.

   In 2001 The space shuttle Discovery touches down, bringing home the first

           residents of the international space station.

   In 2001 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that hospitals cannot test pregnant

           women for drug use without their consent.

   In 2003 The U.S. launches a ferocious, around-the-clock aerial assault on

           military targets in Baghdad and other cities.

   In 2004 Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid wins the prestigious 2004 Pritzker

           Architecture Prize, becoming the first woman to receive the

           profession's highest honor.

   In 2016 National Agriculture Day.