Today In History...

In 1577 Five ships commanded by Sir Francis Drake set sail from England

on Drake's circumnavigation of the world, a journey that took almost

three years.

In 1642 New Zealand is discovered by Dutch navigator Abel Tasman.

In 1769 Dartmouth College receives its charter in New Hampshire.

In 1862 Union forces suffer a major defeat at the hands of the Confederates

in the Battle of Fredericksburg.

In 1915 The city of San Diego hires a rainmaker.

In 1918 Woodrow Wilson arrives in France, becoming the first U.S. president

to visit Europe while in office.

In 1942 The Washington Redskins defeat the Chicago Bears, 14-6, at Griffith

Stadium to win the football championship.

In 1944 During World War II, a Japanese "kamikaze" plane crashes into the

U.S. cruiser Nashville, killing 138 crewmen.

In 1964 In a ceremony in El Paso, Texas, President Lyndon B. Johnson and

Mexican president Gustavo Diaz set off an explosion that diverts the

Rio Grande, reshaping the U.S.-Mexican border and ending a

century-old dispute.

In 1978 The Susan B. Anthony dollar, the first U.S. coin to honor a woman,

is issued by the Philadelphia mint.

In 1980 Christian Democrat Jose Napoleon Duarte is named the president of

El Salvador's new government.

In 1981 Poland imposes martial law in response to the Solidarity Labor 

movement.

In 1982 U.S. Secretary of State George P. Schultz meets with Pope John Paul

II at the Vatican.

In 1982 An earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale kills 2,800 in

North Yemen.

In 1983 Martha Layne Collins is inaugurated as Kentucky's first female

governor.

In 1985 Investigators begin a probe of an Arrow Air DC-8 charter in Gander,

Newfoundland, that had claimed the lives of 248 U.S. servicemen and

eight American crew members the day before.

In 1988 PLO chairman Yasser Arafat addresses the U.N. General Assembly in

Geneva, after the U.S. refused him a visa to visit New York.

In 1988 A bankruptcy judge in Columbia, SC, orders the assets of the

troubled PTL TV ministry sold to a Toronto real estate developer for

$65 million.

In 1989 Teenage Mutant Turtle toy sales surpass $150 million, second only 

to "G.I. Joe."

In 1989 McDonalds confirms that over 26,000 Soviet citizens applied for

630 available jobs at their new Soviet restaurants.

In 1989 South African President F.W. de Klerk meets for the first time with

imprisoned African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela.

In 1990 A final evacuation flight from Iraq arrives in Germany, carrying the

U.S. ambassador to Kuwait and his staff, who had endured a 110-day

Iraqi siege of their embassy.

In 1991 North Korea and South Korea sign a historic non-aggression

agreement, aimed at eventual reconciliation.

In 1992 An Israeli border guard is kidnapped near Tel Aviv and later killed

by the Hamas fundamentalist organization.

In 1993 The space shuttle Endeavour returns from its mission to repair the

Hubble Space Telescope.

In 1993 The U.S. Supreme Court rules, 5-4, that people must receive a

hearing before property linked to illegal drug sales can be seized.

In 1994 An American Eagle commuter plane carrying 20 people crashes short of

of Raleigh-Durham International Airport, killing 15.

In 1995 The U.S. Senate gives a grudging endorsement to deployment of U.S.

troops to keep the tenuous peace in Bosnia.

In 1996 President Clinton nominates Bill Daley to become commerce secretary

and Bill Richardson to be United Nations ambassador.

In 1996 The UN Security Council elects Kofi Annan of Ghana as the world

body's seventh secretary-general.

In 1997 A fire at a Burger King in London's Heathrow airport snarls air

traffic throughout Europe.

In 1997 A ribbon-cutting ceremony is held in Los Angeles for the $1 billion

Getty Center, one of the largest U.S. arts centers.

In 1997 Michigan Wolverine Charles Woodson is named winner of the Heisman

Trophy, the first primarily defensive player so honored.

In 1998 After outfitting the first two pieces of the international space

station, Endeavour's astronauts set a 7-story complex loose.

In 1998 Voters in Puerto Rico reject U.S. statehood.

In 1999 Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak won parliamentary backing for

opening negotiations with Damascus in Syria.

In 2000 President Clinton ends his last presidential visit to Northern

Ireland after meeting with members of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

In 2000 Five weeks after Election Day, Al Gore drops out of presidential

race, conceding victory to George W. Bush, after the U.S. Supreme

Court refuses to allow further recounting of Florida ballots.

In 2002 Cardinal Bernard Law resigns as Boston archbishop because of the 

priest sex abuse scandal. 

In 2003 Saddam Hussein is captured by U.S. forces while hiding in a hole 

under a farmhouse in Adwar, Iraq, near his hometown of Tikrit. 

In 2004 A jury in Redwood City, CA, recommends the death penalty for 

Scott Peterson for the murders of his wife and unborn child.