Today In History...

   In 1777 During the American Revolution, forces under General George
           Washington suffer defeat at the hands of the British in the Battle
           of Brandywine near Wilmington, Delaware.
   In 1789 Alexander Hamilton is appointed the first U.S. Secretary of the
           Treasury.
   In 1814 An American fleet scores a decisive victory over the British in the
           Battle of Lake Champlain in the War of 1812.
   In 1853 The electric telegraph is used for the first time.
   In 1910 The first commercial electric bus line opens in Hollywood, CA.
   In 1919 The U.S. marines invade Honduras.
   In 1936 President Franklin Roosevelt dedicates Boulder Dam, now known as
           Hoover Dam, by pressing a key in Washington to signal the startup of
           the dam's first hydroelectric generator in Nevada.
   In 1941 Aviation hero Charles Lindbergh charges "the British, the Jewish and
           the Roosevelt administration" were trying to draw the United States
           into World War II.
   In 1944 President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill
           meet in Canada at the second Quebec Conference.
   In 1946 The first mobile long-distance car-to-car telephone conversation.
   In 1947 The U.S. Defense Department is formed.
   In 1950 The "Dick Tracy" TV show sparks an uproar concerning violence.
   In 1954 The Miss America beauty pageant makes its network TV debut on ABC.
           Miss California, Lee Ann Meriwether, was crowned the winner.
   In 1967 The TV variety series "The Carol Burnett Show" begins its eleven
           year run on CBS.
   In 1967 U.S. Surveyor V makes the first chemical analysis of lunar material.
   In 1971 Former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev dies of a heart attack at
           age 77.
   In 1972 The troubled Munich Summer Olympic Games come to an end.
   In 1973 Chilean President Salvador Allende dies in a violent military coup.
   In 1978 Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian defector, dies at a British hospital four
           days after he was stabbed by a man wielding a poisoned umbrella tip.
   In 1982 46 people are killed in a U.S. Army helicopter crash near Mannheim,
           West Germany.
   In 1984 Secretary of State George Schultz confirms publicly that thousands
           of children fathered by American G.I.s were still in Vietnam.
   In 1984 Hurricane Diana slams into North Carolina's southeastern coast with
           winds clocked at 100 mph.
   In 1985 Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds cracked career hit number 4,192 off
           Eric Show of the San Diego Padres, eclipsing the record held by Ty
           Cobb.
   In 1985 A U.S. satellite glides through the tail of the Giacobini-Zinner
           comet in the first-ever on-the-spot sampling of a comet.
   In 1986 Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered biggest one-day decline ever,
           plummeting 86.61 points to 1,792.89.
   In 1987 Actor Lorne Green ("Bonanza") dies at age 72.
   In 1989 The exodus of East German refugees from Hungary to West Germany by
           way of Austria begins.
   In 1990 President Bush addresses Congress on the Persian Gulf crisis, vowing
           that "Saddam Hussein will fail" in his takeover of Kuwait.
   In 1991 Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev announces that thousands of
           troops would be withdrawn from Cuba, a move bitterly denounced by
           the Havana government.
   In 1992 Hurricane Iniki strikes Hawaii, leaving at least 5 people dead and
           more than 10,000 homes damaged or destroyed.
   In 1992 President Bush announces he was approving the sale of 72 F-15 jet
           fighters to Saudi Arabia.
   In 1993 Antoine Izmery, a prominent supporter of exiled Haitian President
           Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is shot and killed outside a church in
           Port-au-Prince.
   In 1994 Actress Jessica Tandy dies in Easton, CT, at age 85.
   In 1994 Andre Agassi wins the men's championship at the U.S. Open tennis
           tournament, defeating Michael Stich.
   In 1996 Two top officials with the Health and Human Services Department
           resigned over President Clinton's signing of the Republican welfare
           overhaul bill. (Another official had resigned the month before).
   In 1997 According to Army's largest-ever study of the problem, "sexual
           harassment exists throughout the Army, crossing gender, rank and
           racial lines."
   In 1997 Scotland creates its own Parliament after 290 years of union with
           England.
   In 1998 Independent counsel Kenneth Starr sends his report to Congress,
           which included explicit testimony of President Clinton's
           relationship with Monica Lewinsky. The report accused him of 11
           possible impeachable offenses.
   In 1999 Serena Williams wins the U.S. Open women's title, beating top-seeded
           Martina Hingis.
   In 2000 A FTC report says the movie, video game and music industries
           aggressively marketed to underage youths violent products that carry
           adult ratings.
   In 2001 Terrorists crash 2 hijacked airpanes into the World Trade Center in
           New York, bringing down the twin 110-story towers, killing more than
           3000 people. Another hijacked plane slams into the Pentagon in
           Washington, DC, killing at least 189 people. A fourth hijacked plane
           crashes in rural southern Pennsylvania, killing 44 people aboard. 
           It was worst single act of terrorism ever committed on U.S. soil. 
   In 2002 Johnny Unitas, the Football Hall-of-Famer quarterback that won three
           championships with the Baltimore Colts and broke nearly every
           passing record, dies of a heart attack at age 69.
   In 2003 Actor John Ritter ("Three's Company") dies at age 54.
   In 2004 Svetlana Kuznetsova overwhelms Elena Dementieva 6-3, 7-5, in the 
           first all-Russian U.S. Open final.