Today In History...

Today In History...

   In 1702 England's Queen Anne ascends to the throne after the death of

           William III.

   In 1782 The Gnadenhytten massacre takes place as some 90 Indians who had

           converted to Christianity are slain by militiamen in Ohio in

           retaliation for raids carried out by other Indians.

   In 1838 The U.S. mint in New Orleans begins operation by producing dimes.

   In 1854 U.S. Commodore Matthew C. Perry makes his second landing in Japan.

           Within a month he concludes a treaty with the Japanese.

   In 1862 The Confederate ironclad "Merrimack" is launched.

   In 1874 Millard Fillmore, the 13th U.S. president, dies in Buffalo, NY.

   In 1894 The state of New York enacts the nation's first dog-licensing law.

   In 1913 The Internal Revenue Service begins to collect income taxes.

   In 1917 The first of two Russian revolutions begins with rioting and strikes

           in St. Petersburg.

   In 1917 The U.S. Senate votes to limit filibusters by adopting the cloture

           rule.

   In 1930 William Howard Taft, the 27th U.S. president, dies in Washington.

   In 1934 A Edwin Hubble photograph shows there are as many galaxies as

           the Milky Way has stars.

   In 1942 The Japanese capture Rangoon, Burma, during World War II.

   In 1944 U.S. bombers resume bombing Berlin during World War II.

   In 1945 International Women's Day is first observed.

   In 1946 The first commercial helicopter is licensed.

   In 1950 Marshall Voroshilov announces the USSR had developed an atomic bomb.

   In 1950 B.R. Walters is the first woman medical officer assigned to a naval

           vessel.

   In 1959 Groucho, Chico and Harpo Marx make thier final TV appearance

           together.

   In 1965 America's first ground troops arrive in Vietnam, 3500 marines who

           thought it would be a quick mop-up operation.

   In 1971 Joe Frazier defeats Muhammad Ali in the "fight of the century" at

           Madison Square Garden.

   In 1972 The Goodyear Blimp flies for the first time.

   In 1976 The largest observed falling single stone meteorite is seen at

           Jiling, China.

   In 1983 President Reagan categorizes the USSR as "the Evil Empire."

   In 1983 The House Foreign Affairs Committee endorses a nuclear weapons

           freeze with the Soviet Union, a proposal denounced by President

           Reagan as "a very dangerous fraud."

   In 1985 The most jumps on a pogo stick record is set at 130,077.

   In 1985 President Reagan sends a team of negotiators into arms talks with

           the Soviet Union with instructions to cut back offensive weapons.

   In 1985 John McPherson of Newcastle, England, sets a new Guinness Book

           record when he kissed 4,444 women in eight hours.

   In 1986 Four French television crew members are abducted in west Beirut; a

           caller claimed Islamic Jihad was responsible. All four were

           eventually released.

   In 1988 Seventeen soldiers are killed when two Army helicopters from Fort

           Campbell, Kentucky, collide in mid-flight.

   In 1989 Former contra fundraiser Carl Channell takes the stand and testifies

           he heard Oliver North say he was willing to deceive Congress, even

           if it meant going to jail.

   In 1990 Opening arguments are heard in the Iran-Contra trial of former

           national security adviser John M. Poindexter.

   In 1991 Iraq releases over 40 foreign journalists and two American soldiers

           that it had captured during the Gulf War.

   In 1992 90 people are killed when a ferry carrying pilgrims to a Buddhist

           shrine collides with an oil tanker in the Gulf of Thailand.

   In 1993 On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average soars to a record

           high, climbing 64.84 to end the day at 3,469.42.

   In 1994 The U.S. Defense Department announces a smoking ban for workplaces

           ranging from the Pentagon to battle tanks.

   In 1994 More than 60 people are killed when a speeding train derailed near

           Durban, South Africa.

   In 1995 Two U.S. diplomats are killed and one is injured when their car is

           ambushed by a gunman as they drive to the U.S. Consulate in Karachi,

           Pakistan.

   In 1996 Dr. Jack Kevorkian is acquitted of assisted suicide for helping two

           suffering patients kill themselves.

   In 1997 President Clinton orders federal agencies to hire off welfare rolls.

   In 1998 Serbian police crack down on Albanian "terrorists" in a sweep

           through the Kosovo province.

   In 1999 Nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee is fired from his job at the Los Alamos

           National Laboratory because of alleged security violations.

   In 1999 New York Yankees baseball star Joe DiMaggio dies at age 84.

   In 2000 A letter carrier, two firefighters and a sheriff's deputy are shot

           to death in Memphis, TN, allegedly by the letter carrier's husband,

           who was also a firefighter.

   In 2001 Dame Ninette de Valois, founder of the Royal Ballet, dies in London

           at age 102.

   In 2004 Actor Robert Pastorelli ("Murphy Brown") was found dead in his

           Hollywood Hills, CA, home; He was 49.

   In 2016 International Women's Day