Today In History...

In 1519 Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I dies.

In 1773 America's first public museum is opened in Charleston, SC.

In 1820 The Royal Astronomical Society is founded in England.

In 1912 Washta, Idaho, records the state's low-temperature record of minus

47 degrees.

In 1915 The U.S. House of Representatives reject a proposal to give women

the right to vote.

In 1929 America's longest railway tunnel (8 miles) is completed through the

Washington Cascade Mountains.

In 1932 Hattie Caraway becomes the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate.

In 1942 President Franklin D. Roosevelt creates the National War Labor

Board.

In 1944 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and French General Charles

De Gaulle begin a 2-day wartime conference in Marrakesk, Morocco.

In 1945 During World War II, German forces in Belgium retreat in the Battle

of the Bulge.

In 1945 Aircraft from the U.S. Navy destroys 41 Japanese ships in the

Battle of South China Sea.

In 1948 In a case involving the University of Oklahoma, the U.S. Supreme

Court rules that states could not discriminate against law-school

applicants on the basis of race.

In 1964 Leftist rebels in Zanzibar begin their successful revolt against the

government.

In 1966 President Lyndon B. Johnson said in his State of the Union address

that the U.S. should stay in South Vietnam until Communist

aggression there ended.

In 1967 The Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 21-10, in the

first Super Bowl.

In 1969 The New York Jets beat the Baltimore Colts, 16-7, in Super BowlIII.

In 1971 The situation comedy "All in the Family" premieres on CBS.

In 1976 Mystery writer Agatha Christie dies in Wallingford, England, at age

85.

In 1980 Gold rises past the $700 per ounce mark.

In 1981 Massachusett's all-time low-temperature record of 35 below zero is

recorded at Chester.

In 1983 Health & Human Services Secretary Richard S. Schweiker resigns;

President Reagan nominates former U.S. Rep Margaret Heckler to take

his place.

In 1985 The government of France announces it was sending additional troops

to the Pacific island territory of New Caledonia, the scene of an

increasingly violent ethnic conflict.

In 1986 The space shuttle Columbia is launched with a crew that included

U.S. Rep. Bill Nelson from Florida and the first Hispanic American

in Space, Dr. Franklin R. Chang-Diaz.

In 1987 Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite arrives in Lebanon to negotiate

the release of hostages and is taken hostage himself.

In 1988 Willie Stargell, a 21-year slugger with the Pittsburgh Pirates, is

elected to the Baseball Hall Of Fame.

In 1989 President-elect Bush names former Education Secretary William

Bennett to be the first U.S. "drug czar."

In 1990 The astronauts aboard the space shuttle Columbia retrieve an 11-ton

floating science laboratory in a rescue mission that kept the

satellite from plunging to Earth.

In 1991 A deeply divided Congress gives President Bush the authority towage

war in the Persian Gulf.

In 1992 One day after the surprise resignation of Algeria's president,

the army-backed Algerian government cancels parliamentary elections

In 1994 President Clinton, en route to Russia, worked out an agreement with

the Ukraine to eliminate the country's nuclear arsenal, the

third-largest in the world.

In 1995 An American soldier is killed and another is wounded during a

shootout with a former Haitian army officer in Port-Au-Prince,

Haiti.

In 1995 Qubilah Bahiyah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X, is arrested on

charges she tried to hire a hitman to kill Louis Farrakhan.

In 1996 Chechen fighters holding more than 100 hostages in the Russian

village of Pervomayskaya free about a dozen of their captives and

pledged to release the rest if 4 Russian officials took their place.

In 1998 19 European nations agree to prohibit human cloning.

In 1998 Linda Tripp provides Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's office with

taped conversations between herself and former White House intern

Monica Lewinsky.

In 1999 The U.S. Supreme Court limits state regulation of voter initiatives,

striking down several methods used by Colorado.

In 1999 Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball is sold at auction in New York for

$3 million to an anonymous bidder.

In 2002 Michelle Kwan wins her fifth successive U.S. Figure Skating

Championships crown and sixth overall.

In 2002 Former Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance dies at age 84.

In 2003 Steve Case announced he was stepping down as chairman of AOL Time

Warner, the conglomerate he'd helped to create.

In 2004 President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox forge an agreement

on immigration and Iraq, while meeting in Monterrey.

In 2005 A NASA spacecraft, Deep Impact, blasts off to smash a hole in a

comet. (The probe smashed into Comet Tempel 1 on July 3.)

In 2017 National Handwriting Day.

In 2017 Volunteer Fireman Day.