Today In History...

   In 1792 During the French Revolution, mobs in Paris, France, attack the
           palace of Louis XVI. The king was taken into custody, put on trial
           for treason, and executed the following January.
   In 1809 Ecuador declares independence from Spain.
   In 1821 Missouri becomes the 24th U.S. state.
   In 1846 Congress establishes the Smithsonian Institute, named after English
           scientist Joseph Smithson, whose $500,000 bequest made it possible.
   In 1866 Transatlantic cable is laid - President Buchanan speaks to Queen
           Victoria.
   In 1885 Leo Daft opens America's first commercially operated electric
           streetcar in Baltimore, Maryland.
   In 1921 Franklin D. Roosevelt is stricken with polio while at his summer
           home on the Canadian island of Campobello.
   In 1944 During World War II, American forces overcome the remaining Japanese
           resistance on Guam.
   In 1945 Robert Goddard, the father of American rocketry, dies.
   In 1945 During World War II, Japan announces its willingness to surrender
           to the Allies, provided the status of Emperor Hirohito remained
           unchanged.
   In 1948 Allen Funt's "Candid Microphone," later titled "Candid Camera,"
           debuts on ABC-TV.
   In 1949 The National Military Establishment is renamed the Department of
           Defense.
   In 1954 Workers at (#5 automaker) Studebaker-Packard accept a pay cut.
   In 1960 Discoverer XIII is launched into orbit and becomes the first object
           to be recovered from space after orbiting.
   In 1960 Walt Disney's film "Jungle Cat" is released in movie theaters.
   In 1966 Lunar Orbiter I is launched.
   In 1969 Leno and Rosemary LaBianca are murdered in their Los Angeles home by
           members of Charles Manson's cult, one day after actress Sharon Tate
           and four others were slain.
   In 1975 TV personality David Frost announces he had purchased the exclusive
           rights to interview former President Nixon.
   In 1977 Postal employee David Berkowitz is arrested in Yonkers, New York,
           and accused of being "Son of Sam," the gunman whose six slayings and
           seven woundings had terrorized New Yorkers.
   In 1981 Baseball's Pete Rose tops Stan Musial's National League record of
           3630 hits.
   In 1982 Filming begins on the James Bond flick "Octopussy."
   In 1983 The roller coaster endurance record is set at 503 hours.
   In 1987 President Reagan says he will nominate C. William Verity Jr. to
           replace the late Malcolm Baldrige as commerce secretary.
   In 1988 President Reagan signs a measure providing $20,000 payments to
           Japanese-Americans who were interned during World War II.
   In 1989 President Bush nominates General Colin Powell as Chairman of the
           Joint Chiefs of Staff, the first black and youngest man ever to hold
           the position.
   In 1990 Washington D.C. mayor Marion Barry is convicted of a single
           misdemeanor drug charge and acquitted on another. The judge declares
           a mistrial on 12 other counts.
   In 1991 Nine Buddhists are found slain at their temple outside Phoenix,
           Arizona. Two teenagers were later convicted in the killings.
   In 1992 President Bush meets with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at
           his vacation home in Kennebunkport, Maine. Afterward, Bush announced
           that Mideast peace talks would resume in Washington.
   In 1992 President Bush meets with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabinat his
           Kennebunkport, ME, vacation home. Afterwards, Bush announced that
           Mideast peace talks would resume in two weeks in Washington, DC.
   In 1993 Ruth Bader Ginsburg is sworn in as the second female justice on the
           U.S. Supreme Court.
   In 1994 President Clinton claims presidential immunity in asking a federal
           judge to dismiss a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Paula Corbin
           Jones, a former state employee.
   In 1995 Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols are charged with 11 counts in the
           Oklahoma City bombing.
   In 1995 Norma McCorvey, Jane Roe of the 1973 Supreme Court decision
           legalizing abortion, announces she had joined the anti-abortion
           group Operation Rescue.
   In 1996 Bob Dole completes Republican ticket by annoucing former HUD
           secretary Jack F. Kemp as his running mate.
   In 1996 A power outage hits parts of nine Western states.
   In 1997 U.S. envoy Dennis Ross meets separately with Israeli Prime Minister
           Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in an
           attempt to restart the Mideast peace process.
   In 1998 Secretary of State Madeleine Albright announces a $2 million reward
           for information leading to the conviction of terrorists who bombed
           U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people.
   In 1999 A gunman opens fire at a Jewish community center in Los Angeles,
           wounding 3 boys, a teen-age girl and a woman.
   In 2000 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez holds talks with Iraqi President
           Saddam Hussein, defying the U.S. by being the first head of state to
           visit Iraq since the Gulf War.
   In 2002 Roman Catholic leaders, meeting in Philadelphia, approve a plan to
           keep sexually abusive clergy away from children.
   In 2003 Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, aboard the international space
           center, marries his bride, Ekaterina Dmitriev on earth, in the
           first wedding ever conducted from space.
   In 2004 The 20-year-old woman who accused Kobe Bryant of rape files a
           federal lawsuit in Denver against the NBA star. (The lawsuit was
           later settled out of court.)
   In 2004 Barry Bonds becomes the first player in major league history to hit
           30 home runs in 13 consecutive seasons.