Today In History...

Today In History...

   In 1622 Powhattan's brother led a massacre of some settlements near

           Jamestown, VA. It was the first Indian massacre.

   In 1630 The first colonial legislation prohibiting gambling is enacted in

           Boston.

   In 1638 Religious dissident Anne Hutchinson is expelled from the

           Massachusetts Bay Colony.

   In 1733 Joseph Priestly, dubbed the father of soda pop, invents carbonated

           water.

   In 1765 Britain enacts the Stamp Act to raise money from the American

           colonies. The Act sets off such a strong protest, it is repealed the

           following year.

   In 1794 Congress passes a law prohibiting American vessels from supplying

           slaves to other countries.

   In 1820 U.S. naval hero Stephen Decatur is killed in a duel with Commodore

           James Barron near Washington, DC.

   In 1857 The first deptartment store elevator, invented by Elisha Graves

           Otis, is installed in New York.

   In 1872 Illinois becomes the first state to require sexual equality in

           employment.

   In 1882 The U.S. Congress outlaws polygamy.

   In 1894 Hockey's first Stanley Cup game is played.  Montreal, the home team

           defeats Ottawa, 3-1.

   In 1895 Auguste and Louis Lumiere show their first movie to an invited

           audience in Paris; this is generally regarded as the first public

           display of a movie projected onto a screen.

   In 1929 A U.S. Coast Guard vessel sinks a Canadian-registered schooner,

           suspected of carrying bootleg liquor, in the Gulf of Mexico.

   In 1933 During Prohibition, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a measure

           to make wine and beer containing up to 3.2% alcohol legal.

   In 1941 The Grand Coulee Dam in Washington state goes into operation.

   In 1946 First U.S. Rocket to leave earth's atmosphere (50 miles) is

           launched.

   In 1954 The first shopping mall opens in Southfield, Michigan.

   In 1960 Al Schawlow and C.H. Townes obtain a patent for the laser.

   In 1968 President Johnson's daughter, Lynda, is ordered off Cable Car

           because she was eating an ice cream cone.

   In 1972 Congress sends the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the states for

           ratification. (It fell short of the two-thirds approval needed.)

   In 1977 Indira Gandhi resigns as prime minister of India.

   In 1977 Jay Leno first appears on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson."

   In 1978 Karl Wallenda, the 73-year-old patriarch of "The Flying Wallendas"

           high-wire act, falls to his death while attempting to walk a cable

           strung between two hotels in San Jaun, Puerto Rico.

   In 1979 Israel's parliament approves a peace treaty with Egypt.

   In 1981 First Class Postage rises from 15 cents to 18 cents.

   In 1981 Soyuz 39 is launched, putting the first Monoglian in space.

   In 1982 Third Space Shuttle Mission; Columbia 3 is launched.

   In 1984 A jury in Fall River, MA, convicts two men of aggravated rape and

           acquit two others in the case of a woman gang-raped on a barroom

           pool table while spectators cheered.

   In 1985 Striking Philippine workers block U.S. military base gates.

   In 1985 French diplomats Marcel Fontaine and Marcel Carton are kidnapped in

           Lebanon by Muslim extremists. (They were freed in May 1988.)

   In 1987 A garbage barge, carrying 3,200 tons of refuse, leaves Islip, NY, on

           a 6-month journey in search of a place to unload. (The barge is

           turned away by several states and three countries.)

   In 1988 Both houses of Congress override President Reagan's veto of a

           sweeping civil rights bill that forbade discrimination by those

           institutions that received any federal aid.

   In 1989 National Football League Commissioner Pete Rozelle announces plans

           to retire.

   In 1989 Secretary Fawn Hall goes on the witness stand to defend Oliver North

           in the Iran-Contra trial.

   In 1990 A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, finds former tanker captain Joseph

           Hazelwood innocent of three major charges in connection with the

           massive "Exxon Valdez" oil spill, and convicts him of a minor charge

           of negligent discharge of oil.

   In 1990 Secretary of State James Baker meets with South African President

           F.W. de Klerk in Cape Town.

   In 1990 President Geroge Bush declares "I do not like broccoli and I haven't

           liked it since I was a little kid."

   In 1991 Multi-millionaire real estate developer Donald Trump and his wife

           Ivana divorce.

   In 1991 High school instructor Pamela Smart, accused of manipulating her

           student-lover into killing her husband, is convicted in Exeter, NH,

           of murder-conspiracy.

   In 1992 27 people are killed when a USAir jetliner crashes on takeoff from

           New York's LaGuardia Airport; 24 people survived.

   In 1993 The launch of the space shuttle Columbia is scrubbed with three

           seconds left in the countdown.

   In 1993 Cleveland Indians pitchers Steve Olin and Tim Crews are killed when

           the boat they were riding in slammed into a Florida pier; pitcher

           Bob Ojeda was seriously injured.

   In 1994 "Woody Woodpecker" creator Walter Lantz dies at age 93.

   In 1995 Convicted Long Island Rail Road gunman Colin Ferguson is sentenced

           to life in prison for killing six people.

   In 1996 The shuttle Atlantis blasts off carrying astronaut Shannon Lucid to

           a rendezvous Swith the Russian space station "Mir."

   In 1997 A day after a suicide bomber kills three women in Tel Aviv, Israeli

           troops clashed with hundreds of Palestinians in Hebron.

   In 1997 Tara Lipinski, at age 14 years and 10 months, becomes the youngest

           women's world figure skating champion.

   In 1998 President Clinton departs Washington for an historic 12-day tour of

           Africa.

   In 1998 11 young campers died in a mountain cabin fire in Centre County, PA.

   In 1999 Acting as his own lawyer, Dr. Jack Kevorkian goes on trial on murder

           charges for the first time, telling a jury in Pontiac, MI, he was

           carrying out his professional duty in a videotaped assisted death

           shown on "60 Minutes." (He was convicted of second-degree murder.)

   In 1999 The body of actor David Strickland ("Suddenly Susan") is found

           hanging in a Las Vegas hotel room. He was 28.

   In 2000 Journeying to Bethlehem, Pope John Paul II knelt and prayed at the

           traditional spot of Jesus' birth.

   In 2003 Tens of thousands of people march in cities around the world or

           demonstrated outside U.S. military bases, protesting the Iraq war.

   In 2004 Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin is killed in an Israeli

           airstrike in Gaza City, enraging Palestinians.

   In 2016 National Goof-Off Day