Today In History...

In 1797 The frigate Old Ironsides is launched in Boston Harbor.
In 1805 The Battle of Trafalgar takes place off the coast of Spain with the British fleet thwarting the plans of Napoleon I to invade England.
In 1861 During the Civil War, Union troops are defeated at the Battle of Leesburg at Balls Bluff, Virginia.
In 1879 Thomas A. Edison invents a workable electric light in his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey.
In 1913 Camel cigarettes are introduced for the first time.
In 1917 American troops see action in World War I for the first time.
In 1918 Margaret Owen sets the manual typing record at 170 wpm.
In 1944 During World War II, U.S. troops capture the German City of Aachen.
In 1945 Women in France are allowed to vote for the first time.
In 1948 Facsimile high-speed radio transmissions are demonstrated.
In 1959 The Guggenheim Museum, designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, opens in New York.
In 1960 Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy and Republican candidate Richard M. Nixon clash in their fourth and final presidential debate in New York.
In 1964 The movie musical "My Fair Lady," starring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison, premieres at the Criterion Theater in New York.
In 1966 140 people are killed in a coal landslide in south Wales.
In 1967 250 protestors are arrested when thousands, of the 50,000 participants in a rally against the Vietnam War, storm the Pentagon.
In 1971 President Nixon nominates Lewis F. Powell and William H. Rehnquist to the U.S. Supreme Court, following the resignations of Justices Hugo L. Black and John M Harlan.
In 1975 Venera 9, the first craft to orbit the planet Venus, is launched.
In 1984 Steve Jones runs the Chicago Marathon setting a new world record.
In 1985 Former San Francisco Supervisor Dan White -- who had served five years in prison for killing Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, a gay-rights advocate -- commits suicide.
In 1986 The plate-spinning record atop rods is set at 84 at once.
In 1986 Pro-Iranian kidnappers in Lebanon claim to have abducted American writer Edward Tracy. He was released in August 1991.
In 1986 The U.S. retaliates for the Soviet Union's expulsion of 5 American diplomats by ordering 55 Soviet diplomats to leave.
In 1988 A federal grand jury in New York indicted former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife, Imelda, on charges of fraud and racketeering. (Marcos died before he could face trial, and Mrs. Marco was acquitted in 1991.)
In 1989 Rescue workers in Oakland, CA, pull Buck Helm from the wreckage of Nimitz Freeway that collapsed during the October 17 earthquake.
In 1990 A Palestinian stabs 3 Israelis to death during a rampage in a Jerusalem neighborhood in retaliation for the police killings of 17 Arabs on the Temple Mount.
In 1991 American hostage Jesse Turner is freed by his kidnappers in Lebanon after nearly five years of captivity.
In 1991 Former California Governor Jerry Brown announces his presidential candidacy.
In 1992 A report prepared for the Los Angeles police commission finds that the city was unprepared to handle the rioting that broke out the previous spring, and had responded inadequately.
In 1993 The U.S. Senate rejects curbs on President Clinton's right as commander in chief to send troops to Haiti.
In 1994 The U.S. and North Korea sign an agreement requiring the communist nation to halt its nuclear program and agree to inspections within five years.
In 1994 32 people are killed and 17 injured when a section of bridge collapses during morning rush hour in Seoul, South Korea.
In 1994 The wife of CIA turncoat Aldrich Ames, Rosario Ames, is sentenced to five years in prison for her role in her husband's espionage.
In 1995 Rioting inmates surrender control of a prison dormitory in Greenville, IL, ending a one-day uprising that began after the government ordered federal prisons locked down nationwide.
In 1996 President Clinton's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military survives its first Supreme Court test.
In 1996 Arnoldo Aleman claims victory over Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua's presidential election.
In 1997 The Clinton administration endorses a revised Republican bill to restructure the Internal Revenue Service and shift the burden of proof from the taxpayer to the government in contested court cases.
In 1998 New Mexico cancer specialist Dr. Jane Henney becomes the FDA's first female commissioner.
In 1998 The New York Yankees top a record-breaking baseball season by sweeping San Diego Padres in the World Series.
In 2000 Fifteen Arab leaders convene in Cairo, Egypt, for their first summit in four years.
In 2001 Washington postal worker Thomas L. Morris Jr. dies of inhalation anthrax as officials began testing thousands of postal employees.
In 2002 A car packed with explosives explodes next to a bus in northern Israel during rush hour, killing 14 along with two suicide attackers.

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