Today In History...

In 1493 Christopher Columbus discovers Puerto Rico.
In 1620 The Mayflower pilgrims reach Cape Cod.
In 1794 The U.S. and Britain sign the Jay Treaty resolving matters leftover from the Revolutionary War.
In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address as he dedicated a national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania.
In 1887 American poet Emma Lazarus, who'd written "The New Colossus" to help raise money for the Statue of Liberty's pedestal, dies at age 38.
In 1895 The pencil is invented.
In 1919 The U.S. Senate rejects the Treaty of Versailles.
In 1942 During World War II, Russian forces launch their winter offensive against the Germans along the Don front.
In 1954 New Jersey's Garden State Parkway installed the first automatic toll collectors.
In 1959 Ford Motor Company cancels production of the Edsel.
In 1969 Apollo XII astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean made man's second landing on the moon.
In 1977 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat becomes the first Arab leader to set foot in Israel.
In 1978 Reverend Jim Jones leads 911 people in suicide in Jonestown, Guyana.
In 1982 The Federal Reserve Board cuts its discount rate from 9.5 percent to 9 percent to help a sluggish U.S. economy.
In 1984 500 people die in a firestorm set off by a series of explosions at a petroleum plant on the edge of Mexico City, Mexico.
In 1985 A jury awards Pennzoil the largest damage award in history from Texaco Oil ($10,500,000,000).
In 1985 President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev meet for the first time as they held morning and afternoon sessions at their summit in Geneva.
In 1986 President Reagan said no more arms would be sent to Iran to "eliminate the widespread but mistaken perception" that the U.S.had been exchanging arms for hostages in Lebanon.
In 1990 Leaders of 16 NATO members and the remaining six Warsaw Pact nations signed treaties in Paris making sweeping cuts in conventional arms throughout Europe and pledging non-aggression toward one another.
In 1991 The House of Representatives sustains President Bush's veto of a bill that would have lifted his ban on federally financed abortion counseling.
In 1992 President Bush's mother, Dorothy, dies in Greenwich, CT, at age 91.
In 1994 The U.N. Security Council authorizes NATO to bomb rebel Serb forces striking from neighboring Croatia.
In 1995 President Clinton and Republican congressional leaders end a six-day budget standoff, sending federal employees back to work.
In 1995 The Machinists union and The Boeing Co. reach a tentative agreement to end a 6 1/2-week strike.
In 1995 Polish President Lech Walesa is defeated in his bid for re-election.
In 1996 A commuter plane landing at Baldwin Municipal Airport in Quincy,IL, collides at runway intersection with a small private plane about to take off, killing all 14 people aboard both aircraft.
In 1996 The space shuttle Columbia lifts off with the oldest crew member to date, 61-year-old Story Musgrave.
In 1996 The U.S.vetoes UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's bid for a second term.
In 2000 President Clinton ends a historic visit to Vietnam.
In 2001 The U.S. accuses Iraq and North Korea of developing germ warfare programs.
In 2001 Barry Bonds becomes the first player to win four Most Valuable Player Awards.

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