Today In History...

In 1509 Pope Julius II excommunicates the Italian state of Venice.

In 1521 Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines.

In 1565 The first Spanish settlement in Phillipines, Cebu City is founded.

In 1805 A force led by U.S. Marines capture the city of Derna, on the shores of Tripoli.

In 1865 America's worst marine disaster occurs when the overloaded steamer Sultana explodes on the Mississippi River killing 1547 Union prisoners of war.

In 1897 President Grant's Tomb is formally dedicated.

In 1931 Hawaii's alltime high temperature of 100 degrees is recorded at Pahela.

In 1932 American poet Hart Crane drowns after jumping from a steamer while en route New York; he was 32.

In 1933 A mob of Iowa farmers attempt to lynch a foreclosure judge during the Great Depression.

In 1937 The nation's first Social Security checks are distributed.

In 1947 Baseball fans celebrate "Babe Ruth Day" at Yankee Stadium to honor the ailing star.

In 1965 R.C. Duncan receives a patent for disposable diapers (Pampers).

In 1965 Broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow dies at age 57.

In 1967 Expo '67 is officially opened in Montreal by Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson.

In 1972 Apollo XVI returns to Earth.

In 1973 Acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray resigns amid the Watergate scandal.

In 1978 Convicted Watergate defendant John D. Ehrlichman is released from an Arizona prison after serving 18 months.

In 1982 The trial of John W. Hinckley Jr., who shot 4 people, including President Reagan, begins in Washington, DC. (The trial ended with Hinckley's acquittal by reason of insanity.)

In 1983 President Reagan appears before Congress to urge members to embrace his arms and economic program for Central America.

In 1984 The ten-day siege at the Libyan Embassy in London ends peacefully as the building's occupants left for home.

In 1986 Captain Midnight (John R. McDougall) interrupts a satellite transmission of HBO.

In 1987 The Justice Department put Austrian President Kurt Waldheim on a blacklist, barring him entrance to the U.S. saying he aided in the deportation and execution of thousands of Jews during World War II.

In 1988 The U.S. Senate approves a sweeping trade bill, 63-36, falling short of the two-thirds vote needed to override a threatened veto by President Reagan.

In 1989 More than 150,000 students and workers calling for democracy marched, cheered and sang through central Beijing.

In 1990 The aperture door of the Hubble telescope, carried into space by the space shuttle Discovery, is opened by ground controllers.

In 1992 Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics win entry into the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

In 1993 After a hiatus of more than four months, Israeli and Arab delegates resume Middle East peace talks in Washington, DC.

In 1994 Former President Richard M. Nixon is remembered at an outdoor funeral service attended by all five of his successors at the Nixon presidential library in Yorba Linda, CA.

In 1995 Former Orange County, CA, Treasurer Robert Citron pleads guilty to 6 counts of defrauding investors in the county investment pool.

In 1996 Tens of thousands of refugees go home to southern Lebanon after a U.S.-brokered cease-fire silenced the guns in the 16-day Israel-Hezbollah war.

In 1997 Armed separatists who believe Texas should be its own country take two hostages in West Texas, sparking standoff with 300 police until group agreed to leave mountain "embassy."

In 1997 Tsing Ma bridge, the world's longest rail-and-road suspension bridge at 1.36 miles, opens link between Hong Kong and Lantau Island.

In 1998 A Pentagon panel rules that the remains of the Vietnam veteran in the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery should be exhumed for identification. (The remains were later positively identified as those of Air Force First Lt. Michael J. Blassie.)

In 2000 New York City's Mayor Rudolph Giuliani announces he had prostate cancer. He later bows out of Senate race against Hillary Clinton.

In 2002 South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth arrives at the intl. space station for an 8-day stay that cost him $20 million.

In 2002 Mattel toy company co-founder Ruth Handler, who created the Barbie doll, dies at age 85.

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