Today In History...

In 1653 Oliver Cromwell becomes lord protector of England, Scotland and

Ireland.

In 1773 The Boston Tea Party took place when American colonists disguised as

Indians boarded a British ship and dumped tea into Boston harbor.

In 1809 Napolean Bonaparte is divorced from the Empress Josephine by an act

of the French Senate.

In 1811 A 12.0 earthquake on the Richter scale shakes America in Missouri.

In 1905 Entertainment trade magazine "Variety" publishes its first issue.

In 1907 The Great White Fleet sails from Hampton Downs on it's World Cruise.

In 1916 Gregory Rasputin, the monk who had powerful influence over the

Russian court, is murdered by a group of noblemen.

In 1944 The Battle of the Bulge begins in Belgium as German forces launch

a surprise counter-attack against Allied forces during World War II.

In 1945 The Cleveland Rams win the National Football League championship at

home by defeating the Washington Redskins, 15-14.

In 1950 President Truman declares a national state of emergency in order to

fight "Communist Imperialism."

In 1960 134 people are killed when a United Air Lines DC-8 and a TWA Super

Constellation collide over New York City.

In 1965 Gemini VI returns to Earth.

In 1976 The government stops its swine flu vaccinations following reports of

paralysis linked to the vaccine.

In 1982 EPA agency head Anne M. Gorsuch becomes the first cabinet level

officer cited for contempt of Congress.

In 1983 A judge in Riverside, CA, denies a request from cerebral palsy

victim Elizabeth Bouvia to starve herself to death in a county

hospital.

In 1985 The Mafia boss of bosses, "Big Paul" Castellano, is shot to death

outside a New York City restaurant.

In 1985 At services in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, President Reagan offers

condolences to the families of 248 soldiers killed in the crash of a

chartered plane in Newfoundland.

In 1987 Former White House aide Michael K. Deaver is convicted of lying to a

House subcommittee investigating ethics violations.

In 1987 South Korea holds its first direct presidential election in 16

years, choosing Roh Tae-woo.

In 1988 President-elect Bush chooses former Texas Senator John Tower to be

his secretary of defense, a nomination that went down to defeat in

the U.S. Senate.

In 1990 Jean-Bertrand Arisitide is elected president of Haiti in the

country's first democratic elections.

In 1991 The U.N. General Assembly rescinded its 1975 resolution equating

Zionism with racism by a vote of 111-25.

In 1992 Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger says Serbian President

Slobodan Milosevic and Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic had to

answer for atrocities committed in former Yugoslavia.

In 1993 President Clinton announces the nomination of Bobby Ray Inman to

succeed Les Aspin as defense secretary. However, Inman later

withdrew.

In 1994 White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers announces she would leave

her job at the end of the year.

In 1995 A budget impasse leads to the second shutdown of federal government.

In 1996 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that states must let parents appeal

orders terminating such rights even when they cannot afford court

fees.

In 1996 Former South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan, condemned to death for

a 1979 coup and a deadly military crackdown the next year, has his

sentence commuted to life imprisonment.

In 1997 UN weapons inspector Richard Butler leaves Iraq after failing to

persuade President Saddam Hussein to open his palaces to

inspections.

In 1997 A Pentagon-appointed panel concludes that the Army, Navy and Air

Force should segregate male and female recruits in their earliest

phases of basic training.

In 2000 President-elect Bush selects Colin Powell to become the first

African-American secretary of state.

In 2000 Deadly tornados hit Alabama, killing 12 people.

In 2001 The first U.S. commercial food shipments since 1963 arrive in Cuba.

In 2002 President Bush names former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean to 

replace Henry Kissinger as head of the panel investigating the 

September 11 terror attacks. 

In 2003 President Bush signs a number of measures into law, including 

legislation meant to stem the flood of junk spam e-mail.