Today In History...

In 1788 Virginia becomes the 10th U.S. state.

In 1797 Charles Newbold patents the first cast-iron plow.

In 1870 The first section of Atlantic City's Boardwalk opens to the publicin New Jersey.

In 1894 The American Railway Union, led by Eugene Debs, calls a general strike in sympathy with Pullman workers.

In 1900 A commission that included Dr. Walter Reed begins research that ultimately defeats the deadly disease yellow fever.

In 1917 The first troops of the American Expeditionary Force arrive in France during World War I.

In 1919 The first issue of the New York Daily News is published.

In 1925 Charlie Chaplin's classic comedy, "The Gold Rush," premieres at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.

In 1934 President Franklin Roosevelt signs the Federal Credit Union Act, establishing Credit Unions.

In 1944 The Republican National Convention opens in Chicago with a keynote speech by California Governor Earl Warren.

In 1945 The United Nations charter is signed in San Francisco by 50 nations.

In 1947 "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" is released in U.S. movie theaters.

In 1948 The U.S. responds to the Soviet blockade of Berlin.

In 1949 Baade discovers the asteroid Icarus inside the orbit of Mercury.

In 1959 President Eisenhower joins Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in ceremonies officially opening the St. Lawrence Seaway linking the Atlantic Ocean with the Great Lakes.

In 1963 President Kennedy visits West Berlin and calls himself a "jelly donut" in a speech. He thought he was saying "I'm a Berliner" in german.

In 1968 The U.S. returns the Iwo Jima and Bonin Islands to Japan.

In 1975 Citing what she called a "deep and widespread conspiracy" against her government, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declares a state of emergency.

In 1976 The world's tallest structure, the CN Tower in Toronto, opens.

In 1978 SEASAT I, the first oceanographic satellite, is launched.

In 1981 The James Bond film "For Your Eyes Only" premieres.

In 1984 The first flight of the Shuttle Discovery is scrubbed at T-minus 4.

In 1984 American Jewish leaders express outrage over comments by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who had denounced Judaism during a speech in Chicago.

In 1985 Jimmy Dell Palmer, an American hostage in the hijacking of TWA Flight 847, is released because of a heart condition.

In 1986 Voters in Ireland decide by a more than 3-2 margin against a proposal to end the nation's constitutional ban on divorce.

In 1987 U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. announces his retirement. (He is replaced by Anthony M. Kennedy.)

In 1988 The Lion's Club of Lefaivre, Ontario, makes and flips a 30-foot pancake, setting a world record.

In 1988 3 people are killed when a new Airbus A-320 jetliner carrying more than 130 people crashed into a forest during an air show demonstration flight in Mulhouse, France.

In 1989 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the death penalty may be imposed for murderers who committed their crimes as young as 16.

In 1990 African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela addresses the U.S. Congress.

In 1991 A Kentucky medical examiner announces that test results showed President Zachary Taylor had died in 1850 of natural causes -- and not arsenic poisoning, as speculated by a writer.

In 1992 Navy Secretary H. Lawrence Garrett III resigns, accepting responsibility for the Tailhook sex-abuse scandal.

In 1992 Willie L. Williams is sworn in as Los Angeles police chief, succeeding the outgoing Daryl Gates.

In 1993 President Clinton announces the U.S. had launched missiles against Iraqi targets because of "compelling evidence" Iraq had plotted to assassinate former President Bush.

In 1993 Baseball Hall of Famer Roy Campanella dies at age 71.

In 1994 Gays and lesbians gather in New York City to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Stonewall Inn riots, considered to mark the birth ofthe gay rights movement.

In 1994 An Israeli commission finds that a Jewish settler had acted alone when he shot and killed 29 Muslims in a Hebron mosque, rejecting Palestinian claims of a conspiracy.

In 1995 Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's motorcade comes under attack en route to an African summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

In 1995 The U.S. Supreme Court rules, 6-3, that public schools can require drug tests for its athletes.

In 1995 President Clinton observes the 50th anniversary of the United Nations at the site of its birth in San Francisco.

In 1996 The U.S. Supreme Court orders the Virginia Military Academy to admit women or forgo state support.

In 1996 President Clinton and leaders of the world's other industrial powers gather in Lyon, France, for their annual economic summit.

In 1997 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that terminally ill Americans had no constitutional right to doctor-assisted suicide, but did nothing to bar states from legalizing the process.

In 1998 The U.S. Supreme Court rules employers are potentially liable for supervisor's sexual misconduct toward an employee.

In 1999 Russian troops fly into Kosovo to help reopen a strategic airport and join an uneasy alliance with NATO peacekeepers.

In 2000 Rival scientific teams complete the first rough map of the human genetic code after a 10-year race.

In 2000 Federal investigators conclude that John F. Kennedy Jr.'s planecrashed after he became disoriented and lost control.

In 2001 Retired Army officer George Trofimoff is convicted of selling Cold War secrets to Moscow over two decades. (Trofimoff, who maintains his innocence, was sentenced to life in prison.)

In 2003 Strom Thurmond, the longest-serving senator in U.S. history, dies in Edgefield, South Carolina, at age 100.

In 2013 The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Defense of Marriage Act ruling that same-sex couples were entitled to federal benefits.

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