Today In History...

In 1763 The English lexicographer, author and wit Samuel Johnson meets his future biographer, James Boswell.
In 1770 Marie Antoinette, age 14, marries the future King Louis XVI of France, who was 15.
In 1817 Steamboat service begins on the Mississippi river taking passengers from New Orleans to Louisville.
In 1866 Congress authorizes the nickel 5-cent piece (the silver half-dime was used up to this point).
In 1866 Root Beer is invented by Charles Elmer Hires.
In 1868 The U.S. Senate fails by one vote to convict President Andrew Johnson as it took its first ballot on one of 11 articles of impeachment against him.
In 1891 Spam is introduced by Hormel & Company.
In 1920 Joan of Arc is canonized in Rome.
In 1929 The first Academy Awards are presented during a banquet at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The silent movie "Wings" is named Best Production, Emil Jannings is named Best Actor and Janet Gayor is named Best Actress.
In 1948 Israel issues its first postage stamps.
In 1948 The body of CBS news correspondent George Polk is found in Solonika Bay in Greece, a week after he disappeared. Greek leftists and rightists blamed each other for the killing.
In 1955 American author and critic James Agee dies in New York.
In 1960 A Big Four summit conference in Paris collapses on its opening day when Soviet Premier Khrushchev leveled spy charges against the U.S. in the wake of the U2 incident.
In 1971 First Class Mail now costs 8 cents (it was 6 cents).
In 1975 Japanese climber Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
In 1984 Peter Dowdeswell sets a record by eating 13 raw eggs in 1 second.
In 1985 The Soviets raise the drinking age to 21.
In 1985 The president of El Salvador, Jose Napoleon Duarte, visits President Reagan at the White House to talk about attempts to negotiate peace with leftist rebels.
In 1986 Nine mountain climbers die in a snowstorm on Mount Hood, Oregon.
In 1987 Testing of the world's biggest rocket begins by the Soviets.
In 1988 Surgeon General C. Everett Koop releases a report declaring nicotine addictive in ways similar to heroin and cocaine.
In 1988 The U.S. Supreme Court rules police can search discarded garbage without a warrant.
In 1989 During his visit to Beijing, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev meets with Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, formally ending a 30-year rift between the two Communist powers.
In 1990 Muppets creator, Jim Henson dies of a massive bacterial infection at age 53.
In 1990 Entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. dies in Los Angeles at age 64.
In 1991 Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.
In 1992 The space shuttle Endeavour completes its maiden voyage with a safe landing in the California desert.
In 1992 America3, skippered by Bill Koch, wins the 28th defense of the America's Cup.
In 1994 Israel begins its final withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, shutting down the prison and military headquarters where Israeli soldiers had been in charge since the 1967 Middle East War.
In 1995 Japanese police arrest doomsday cult leader Shoko Asahara, holding him in connection with the nerve-gas attack on Tokyo's subways two months earlier.
In 1996 Admiral Jeremy "Mike" Boorda dies from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after some of his military awards were called into question.
In 1997 South Korea pledges $10 million in corn and powdered milk in response to United Nations appeal for emergency aid to North Korea.
In 1997 President Clinton publicly apologizes for the notorious Tuskegee experiment, in which government scientists deliberately allowed black men to weaken and die of treatable syphilis.
In 1997 The space shuttle Atlantis docks with Russia's Mir station.
In 2000 Veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas resigns from UPI, a day after the wire service was sold to The Washington Times.
In 2000 The U.S. Federal Reserve raises a key interest rate by one-half point, the biggest increase in five years.
In 2001 Former FBI agent Robert Hanssen is indicted on charges of spying for Moscow. (Hanssen later pleaded guilty to 15 counts of espionage and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.)
In 2001 Nathaniel Brazill, a 14-year-old boy who shot & killed his English teacher, is convicted of second-degree murder in West Palm Beach, FL, and sentenced to 28 years in prison.
In 2003 In Casablanca, Morocco, five simultaneous suicide attacks claim the lives of 33 victims, in addition to a dozen suicide bombers.

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