Today In History...

In 1556 A deadly earthquake kills 830,000 in Shensi Province, China.

In 1742 Charles VII, king of Germany, is elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire during the War of the Austrian Succession.

In 1848 James W. Marshall finds a gold nugget at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California, a discovery that led to the gold rush of 1849.

In 1861 The arsenal at Augusta, Georgia, is seized by the Confederacy.

In 1899 The rubber heel is patented by Humphrey O'Sullivan.

In 1908 The first Boy Scout troop is organized in England by Sir Robert Baden-Powell.

In 1916 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that federal income tax is constitutional.

In 1922 Christian K. Nelson of Onawa, Iowa, patents the Eskimo Pie.

In 1924 The Soviet Union renames the city of Petrograd to Leningrad.

In 1935 Beer is first sold in cans at Richmond, Virginia.

In 1942 A special court of inquiry into America's lack of preparedness for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor places much of the blame on the Navy's Rear Admiral, Husband E. Kimmel and the Army's GeneralWalter C. Short.

In 1943 President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill conclude a wartime conference in Casablanca, Morocco.

In 1945 The New York Yankees are sold for $3 million.

In 1965 Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill dies in London at age 90.

In 1972 The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down laws that denied welfare benefits to people who had resided in a state for less than a year.

In 1978 A crippled, nuclear-powered Soviet satellite plunged through Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated, scattering radioactive debris over parts of northern Canada.

In 1982 San Francisco 49'ers win their first Super Bowl, 26-21, over the Cincinnati Bengals.

In 1983 A jury in Italy sentences 32 members of the Red Brigades to life imprisonment, for the kidnapping and murder of former Prime Minister Aldo Moro.

In 1984 The personal Apple Macintosh Computer is introduced.

In 1985 The space shuttle Discovery is launched from Cape Canaveral, FL, on the first secret, all-military shuttle mission.

In 1985 A federal jury in New York decides that Time magazine did not libel former Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon by linking him to a 1982 massacre of Palestinians.

In 1986 The Voyager II space probe makes the first fly-by of Uranus and discovers new moons.

In 1987 20,000 civil rights demonstrators march through nearly all-white Forsyth County, Georgia, a week after a smaller march was disrupted by Ku Klux Klan members.

In 1987 Gunmen kidnap 3 American teachers and an Indian educator from Beirut University College in Lebanon. (All were later released.)

In 1988 The government of Haiti declares Leslie Manigat winner of that country's presidential election.

In 1989 After 10 years on death row, Ted Bundy is executed in Florida for murdering 2 college coeds and a 12-year-old girl.

In 1990 The U.S. House of Representatives voted, 390-25, to override President Bush's veto of legislation protecting Chinese students from being deported. (Bush prevails the next day in a Senate vote).

In 1992 The state of Arkansas executes convicted cop-killer Ricky RayRector by lethal injection.

In 1992 A judge in El Salvador sentences an army colonel and a lieutenant to 30 years in prison for their part in the 1989 massacre of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter.

In 1993 Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall dies at age 84. President Clinton picks William Perry to succeed Les Aspin as U.S. Defense Secretary.

In 1994 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that protesters who block access to abortion clinics may be sued under federal anti-racketeering laws.

In 1995 Opening statements begin in O.J. Simpson murder trial.

In 1995 President Clinton freezes Mideast terrorists' assets held in American banks.

In 1996 The FDA approves Olestra, a zero-calorie artificial fat.

In 1996 Michael New is discharged from the U.S. Army after a court-martial jury convicted him for refusing to wear a U.N. beret for a peacekeeping mission in the former Yugoslavia.

In 1997 Publix Super Markets agrees to pay $81.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit.

In 1998 Pope John Paul II, during his visit to Cuba, calls for the release of "prisoners of conscience" and respect for freedom of expression, initiative and association.

In 1999 Olympic leaders recommend the expulsion of six International Olympic Committee members in response to allegations of payoffs.

In 2001 The last two of seven escaped convicts from Texas are captured in Colorado after 42 days on the run.

In 2003 The new Department of Homeland Security officially opens as its head, Tom Ridge, was sworn in.

In 2003 Connecticut becomes the first state to inoculate 500,000 health care workers against smallpox.

In 2004 NASA's Opportunity rover lands on Mars.

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