Today In History...

In 1611 English explorer Henry Hudson, his son and several other people are set adrift in present-day Hudson Bay during a mutiny.

In 1775 The first Continental currency is authorized.

In 1815 Napolean Bonaparte abdicates the throne a second time.

In 1847 The doughnut is invented.

In 1868 Arkansas re-enters the U.S. after the civil war.

In 1870 The U.S. Department of Justice is established by Congress.

In 1911 King George V of England is crowned at Westminster Abbey.

In 1937 Joe Lewis wins the world heavyweight boxing title by knocking out Jim Braddock in Chicago.

In 1938 Heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis knocks out Max Schmeling in the first round of their rematch at Yankee Stadium.

In 1940 France falls to Nazi Germany during World War II.

In 1941 Germany invades the Soviet Union during World War II.

In 1943 Federal troops put down race-related rioting in Detroit that claimed more than 30 lives.

In 1944 President Franklin Roosevelt signs the "GI Bill of Rights," authorizing a broad package of benefits for World War II veterans.

In 1947 The heaviest rain recorded in history falls on Holt, Missouri, with 12 inches in 47 minutes.

In 1969 Singer/actress Judy Garland dies in London at age 47.

In 1970 President Nixon signs a measure lowering the voting age to 18.

In 1977 John Mitchell becomes the first former U.S. Attorney General to go to prison, for his role in the Watergate cover-up.

In 1978 Pluto's moon Charon is discovered by James Christy.

In 1979 Britain's "trial of the century" ends as former Liberal Party head Jeremy Thorpe is acquitted of conspiring to murder a male model.

In 1983 The crew of the space shuttle Challenger released a West German satellite into space, then retrieved it with the shuttle's robot arm 5 times, demonstrating the shuttle's ability to retrieve and put
back into orbit satellites in need of repair.

In 1984 Vermont state troopers raided the Northeast Kingdom Community Church, a fundamentalist Christian sect, taking away 112 youngsters to find out whether they'd been physically abused.

In 1987 Dancer/actor Fred Astaire dies in Los Angeles at age 88.

In 1988 Gay rights activist Leonard Matlovich, who was discharged from the

U.S. Air Force because of his homosexuality, dies at age 44.

In 1988 Singer Dennis Day, best known as Jack Benny's sidekick, dies at 71.

In 1989 The government of Angola and the anti-Communist rebels of the UNITA movement agree to a formal truce in their 14-year-old civil war.

In 1990 African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela speaks to delegates at the United Nations.

In 1992 The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rules that hate-crime laws that ban cross burning and similar expressions of racial bias violated free-speech rights.

In 1993 Former First Lady Pat Nixon dies of lung cancer at age 81. (Her husband, former President Nixon, died April 22, 1994.)

In 1993 University of California-San Francisco geneticist Dr. Charles Epstein is injured by a bomb, later blamed on confessed Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski.

In 1994 President Clinton announces the North Koreans have confirmed their promise to former President Jimmy Carter to freeze their nuclear program.

In 1994 The Houston Rockets defeat the New York Knicks, 90-84, to win the NBA championship.

In 1995 Riot police storm a hijacked jumbo jet in Hakodate, Japan, freeing all 364 people on board and capturing a lone hijacker.

In 1996 At their first summit in 6 years, Arab leaders meeting in Cairo, Egypt, urge Israel to prove its commitment to peace by resuming negotiations without delay.

In 1997 World leaders conclud a historic summit in Denver with Russia's full participation for the first time.

In 1997 Dr. Nancy W. Dickey is named the first female president of the American Medical Association.

In 1998 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that evidence illegally obtained by authorities can be used at revocation hearings for convicted criminal's parole.

In 1998 Actress Maureen O'Sullivan dies at age 87.

In 1999 President Clinton visits ethnic Albanian refugees at a refugee camp in Macedonia.

In 1999 The U.S. Supreme Court rules the Americans with Disabilities Act does not extend to people with poor eyesight or other correctable conditions.

In 2000 Gary Graham is executed in Texas after insisting he was innocent of a 1981 murder.

In 2002 An earthquake in northwestern Iran kills at least 500 people.

In 2002 St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Darryl Kile is found dead in the team's Chicago hotel. He was 33.

In 2002 Syndicated advice columnist Ann Landers dies in Chicago at age 83.

In 2003 Iraq re-enters the world oil market with its first shipment of crude since the war.

In 2004 President Clinton's memoir, "My Life," is officially released.

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