Today In History...

In 1776 American revolutionary Thomas Paine publishes his influential

pamphlet, "Common Sense," in which he argued for American

independence from Britain.

In 1840 The Penny Post mail system is started.

In 1861 Florida becomes the third state to secede from the Union.

In 1863 London's Metropolitan, the world's first underground passenger

railway opens to the public.

In 1870 John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil.

In 1911 The first photo from an airplane is taken over San Diego.

In 1917 "Buffalo" Bill Cody dies at the age of 71.

In 1920 The League of Nations is established as the Treaty of Versailles

goes into effect.

In 1928 The Soviet Union orders the exile of Leon Trotsky.

In 1932 Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony comics begin syndication.

In 1944 The first mobile electric power plant is delivered in Philadelphia.

In 1946 The U.N. General Assembly meets for the first time in London.

In 1946 U.S. Army establishes the first radar contact with moon.

In 1957 Harold Macmillan becomes prime minister of Britain, following the

resignation of Anthony Eden.

In 1964 "That Was The Week That Was" premieres.

In 1967 Massachusetts Republican Edward W. Brooke, the first black elected

to the U.S. Senate by popular vote, takes his seat.

In 1967 National Educational Television (forerunner of PBS) operates for the

first time as a network when it carries President Lyndon Johnson's

State of the Union address.

In 1969 USSR's Venera 6 is launched for a parachute landing on Venus.

In 1978 The Soviet Union launches two cosmonauts aboard Soyuz 27 for a

rendezvous with the Salyut Six space laboratory, where two other

cosmonauts had been living for a month.

In 1980 The record for the fastest trip around the world on scheduled

airline flights is set at 44 hours.

In 1980 Former AFL-CIO president George Meany dies at age 85.

In 1983 In order to stop leaks, President Reagan orders White House staff

members to stay away from the press.

In 1984 The U.S. and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations for the

first time in more than a century.

In 1985 Daniel Ortega is inaugurated as president of Nicaragua, after which

he promptly denounced what he called U.S. aggression against his

country.

In 1986 Heavy rain at Cape Canaveral, FL, forces a seventh delay in the

flight of the space shuttle Columbia.

In 1989 The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the right of states to tax

long-distance telephone calls.

In 1989 Cuba begins withdrawing its troops from Angola, more than 13 years

after the first soldiers arrive.

In 1990 Chinese Premier Li Peng lifts Beijing's seven-month-old martial law,

and said that by crushing pro-democracy protests, the army had saved

China from "the abyss of misery."

In 1991 Five days before the U.N. deadline for Iraq to withdraw fromKuwait,

peace efforts intensify, with U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de

Cuellar setting off on a mission aimed at averting war.

In 1992 The Labor Department reports the nation's unemployment rate had

climbed to 7.1 percent.

In 1993 An unidentified 62-year-old man at the University of Pittsburgh

Medical Center undergoes the world's second baboon liver transplant.

(The man died less than a month later.)

In 1994 In Manassas, VA, Lorena Bobbitt goes on trial, charged with

malicious wounding of her husband, John (she was acquitted by reason

of temporary insanity).

In 1994 On the first day of a 2-day NATO summit in Belgium, leaders signed a

document inviting nations of the former Warsaw Pact to join in a

"partnership for peace."

In 1995 Russia announces a 48-hour truce in breakaway Chechnya, but the

cease-fire fell apart after only a few hours.

In 1995 President Clinton declares flood-stricken areas of California major

disaster areas.

In 1998 Michelle Kwan wins the ladies' U.S. Figure Skating Championship in

Philadelphia; Tara Lipinski came in second and Nicole Bobek, third.

In 2000 America Online says it will acquire Time Warner in what would be

biggest corporate merger ever.

In 2003 North Korea withdraws from a global treaty barring it from making

nuclear weapons.

In 2004 Michelle Kwan wins her seventh straight title and eighth overall at

the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Atlanta.