Today In History...

   In 1789 Congress passes the First Judiciary Act, which provided for an
           Attorney General and a Supreme Court.
   In 1845 The first baseball team is organized.
   In 1852 A new invention, the dirigible, is demonstrated.
   In 1853 Cornelius Vanderbilt makes the first round-the-world trip by yacht.
   In 1869 Thousands of businessmen are ruined in a Wall Street panic after
           financiers Jay Gould & James Fisk attempt to corner the gold market.
   In 1895 First round-the-world trip by a woman on a bicycle (took 15 months).
   In 1929 Lt. James H. Doolittle guides a Consolidated NY2 Biplane over
           Mitchell Field in New York in the first all-instrument flight.
   In 1934 Babe Ruth makes his farewell appearance as a regular player with the
           New York Yankees in a game against the Boston Red Sox.
   In 1948 Mildred Gillars, accused of being Nazi wartime radio propagandist
           "Axis Sally," pleads innocent in a Washington courtroom to charges
           of treason. (Gillars served 12 years in prison.)
   In 1955 President Eisenhower suffers a heart attack while on vacation in
           Denver, CO.
   In 1957 The Brooklyn Dodgers play their last game at Ebbets Field defeating
           the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-0.
   In 1957 President Eisenhower orders U.S. troops to desegregate Little Rock,
           Arkansas, schools.
   In 1960 The first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise, is
           launched at Newport News, VA.
   In 1961 "The Bullwinkle Show," featuring Bullwinkle the Moose and Rocky the
           Flying Squirrel, first airs.
   In 1963 The U.S. Senate ratifies a treaty with Britain and the Soviet Union
           limiting nuclear testing.
   In 1964 "The Munsters" premieres on CBS-TV.
   In 1968 The CBS television news magazine "60 Minutes" premieres.
   In 1969 The trial of the "Chicago 8" begins. Five of the defendants were
           convicted of crossing state lines to incite riots at the 1968
           Democratic national convention, but the convictions were ultimately
           overturned.
   In 1970 The first automated return of a lunar sample by Luna XVI.
   In 1976 Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst is sentenced to 7 years for her
           part in a 1974 bank robbery. She was released after 22 months under
           an executive clemency order from President Carter.
   In 1981 Four Armenian gunmen seize the Turkish consulate in Paris, holding
           60 hostages for 15 hours before surrendering.
   In 1985 Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, addressing the UN
           General Assembly, warns the Reagan administration's "Star Wars"
           proposal threatened a "nuclear catastrophe."
   In 1985 The U.S. House of Representatives approves a budget package that
           even its supporters admitted relied on accounting gimmicks to help
           meet the government's self-imposed deficit limit in fiscal 1987.
   In 1987 President Reagan rebuffs congressional calls to limit U.S. forces
           in the Persian Gulf, and defended the recent U.S. attack on an
           Iranian mine-laying vessel.
   In 1988 The Episcopal church elects its first female bishop, Barbara Harris,
           a black woman who had been a priest for 8 years.
   In 1988 Billy Carter, former president Jimmy Carter's brother and a comical
           character during his presidency, dies at age 51 of cancer.
   In 1988 Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson wins the men's 100-meter dash at the
           Seoul Summer Olympics, but he was disqualified three days later for
           using anabolic steroids.
   In 1990 The Supreme Soviet votes to give preliminary approval to a plan for
           switching the Soviet Union to a free-market economy.
   In 1990 South African President F.W. de Klerk meets at the White House with
           President Bush.
   In 1991 Children's book author Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel dies at age 87.
   In 1991 Kidnappers in Lebanon free British hostage Jack Mann after holding
           him captive for more than two years.
   In 1992 Acting Navy Secretary Sean O'Keefe strips three admirals of their
           jobs for failing to investigate aggressively the Tailhook sex abuse
           scandal.
   In 1993 Addressing the UN, Nelson Mandela asks the world community to lift
   In 1993 conomic sanctions against South Africa.
   In 1994 A firefight erupts between U.S. Marines and a group of armed
           Haitians outside a police station in the northern coastal city of
           Cap-Haitien. Ten of the Haitians were killed.
   In 1995 Israel and the PLO agree to sign a pact at the White House ending
           nearly three decades of Israeli occupation of West Bank cities.
   In 1995 A 16-year-old boy in Cuers, France, kills 13 people before turning
           a gun on himself.
   In 1996 The U.S., represented by President Clinton, and the world's other
           major nuclear powers sign a treaty to end all testing and
           development of nuclear weapons.
   In 1998 Hurricane Georges charges toward the Florida Keys, after killing at
           least 250 in Caribbean.
   In 1998 The Federal Reserve puts into circulation $2 billion in
           harder-to-counterfeit $20 bills.
   In 1999 For the first time, citizens of Yugoslav federation, including
           Serbia and Montenegro, vote directly for president.
   In 2000 For the first time, citizens of the Yugoslav federation - Serbia and
           Montenegro - vote directly for president. (The election would prompt
           protests that toppled President Slobodan Milosevic.)
   In 2001 President Bush orders a freeze on the assets of 27 people and
           organizations with suspected links to terrorism, including Islamic
           militant Osama bin Laden.
   In 2002 Gunmen storm a Hindu temple in the western Indian state of Gujarat, 
           killing some 30 worshippers.