Today In History...

In 1066 William The Conquerer invades England to claim the English throne.
In 1542 Portuguese navigator Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo discovers California at what is now San Diego.
In 1781 American forces in the Revolutionary War, backed by a French fleet, begin their siege of Yorktown Heights, Virginia.
In 1787 Congress votes to send the just-completed Constitution of the United States to state legislatures for their approval.
In 1850 Flogging is abolished as a form of punishment in the U.S. Navy.
In 1858 Donati's comet is the first to be photographed.
In 1892 The first nighttime football game takes place, in Mansfield, PA, between Mansfield University and Wyoming Seminary.
In 1920 Eight members of the Chicago White Sox are indicted for allegedly throwing the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds in what becomes known as the "Black Sox" scandal.
In 1924 Two U.S. Army planes land in Seattle, WA, having completed the first around-the-world flight in 175 days.
In 1939 During World War II, Germany and the Soviet Union agree on a plan to partition Poland.
In 1944 The first TV musical comedy, "The Boys from Boise," is telecast.
In 1953 Astronomer Edwin Hubble dies at age 53.
In 1961 "Dr. Kildare," starring Richard Chamberlain and "Hazel," starring Shirley Booth, premiere on NBC-TV.
In 1963 Giuseppe Cantarella roller-skates a record 41.5 kph for 440 yds.
In 1965 Jack McKay reaches 90 km in the X-15.
In 1967 Walter Washington takes office as the first mayor of the District of Columbia.
In 1970 Anwar Sadat replaces Egyptian President Nassar when he dies of a heart attack at age 52.
In 1972 Japan and Communist China agree to re-establish diplomatic relations.
In 1974 First Lady Betty Ford undergoes a radical mastectomy following the discovery of a cancerous lump in her breast.
In 1976 Muhammad Ali keeps his world heavyweight boxing championship with a close 15-round decision over Ken Norton in New York.
In 1980 Jaromir Wagner sets the record for airplane "wing-walking" when he wing-walks across the Atlantic Ocean.
In 1987 U.S. Representative Patricia Schroeder (D-CO) announces she would not run for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination.
In 1988 President Reagan vetoes legislation designed to toughen curbs in textile, apparel and shoe imports.
In 1989 Deposed Philippine leader Ferdinand Marcos dies in exile in Hawaii at age 72.
In 1990 The exiled emir of Kuwait visits the White House, where he told President Bush the Iraqis were destroying and looting his country.
In 1992 A Pakistani jetliner crashes in Nepal, killing all 167 people aboard.
In 1993 First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton arrives at Capitol Hill to begin selling the administration's health care plan to Congress.
In 1994 More than 900 people die when an Estonian ferry capsizes and sinks in the Baltic sea.
In 1994 Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu, the number 2 man in Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, is assassinated.
In 1995 Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Yasir Arafat, chairman of the PLO, sign an accord to transfer much of the West Bank to the control of its Arab residents.
In 1996 With the U.S. abstaining, the UN Security Council passes a resolution indirectly calling on Israel to close an archaeological tunnel in Jerusalem that had touched off fighting between Israelis and Palestinians.
In 1997 Swiss voters endorse their country's liberal drug policies, which include state distribution of heroin to hardened addicts.
In 1997 Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals hit his 58th home run on the final day of the 1997 regular season (He would set a new home run record at 70 the following year.)
In 1998 Hurricane Georges plows into the Gulf Coast, weakening to a tropical storm, but pouring rain at a pace of an inch per hour.
In 1999 The Supreme Court agreed to decide whether a state can give visitation rights to grandparents when, after a divorce or some other family split, the children's parents say no.
In 2000 The U.S. government approves use of the abortion pill, RU-486.
In 2000 Former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau dies.
In 2002 Rep. Patsy Mink, a 12-term Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, dies in Honolulu at age 74.
In 2003 Tennis champion Althea Gibson dies at age 76.
In 2004 Award-winning designer Geoffrey Beene dies at age 77.

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