Today In History...

In 1535 Sir Thomas More goes on trial in England, charged with treason for rejecting the Oath of Supremacy.
In 1776 The first vote is taken on the Declaration of Independence.
In 1847 The first adhesive U.S. postage stamps go on sale.
In 1862 Congress outlaws polygamy (multiple marriages).
In 1863 The Civil War Battle of Gettysburg begins.
In 1867 Canada becomes a self-governing dominion of Britain as the British North America Act took effect.
In 1874 The Philadelphia Zoological Society, the first U.S. zoo, opens.
In 1893 President Cleveland underwent a secret operation to remove a cancerous growth from the roof of his mouth. The procedure was successful.
In 1898 During the Spanish-American War, Theodore Roosevelt and his "Rough Riders" wage a victorious assault on San Juan Hill in Cuba.
In 1915 Actress Annette Kellerman does the first movie nude scene when she strips in the movie "Daughter Of The Gods."
In 1916 Dwight D. Eisenhower marries Mary "Mamie" Geneva Doud in Denver, CO.
In 1919 First class postage drops to 2 cents from 3 cents.
In 1928 John Logie Baird transmits the first crude color TV pictures.
In 1929 U.S. cartoonist Elzie Segar creates "Popeye."
In 1932 New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt is nominated for president by the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.
In 1935 The Warner Brothers cartoon character Porky Pig debuts in "I Haven't Got A Hat."
In 1941 The Bulova Watch Company pays $9.00 for the first ever network TV commercial on WNBT in New York City.
In 1943 "Pay-as-you-go" income tax withholding begins for American wage and salary earners.
In 1946 The U.S. explodes a 20-kiloton atomic bomb near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific, using dozens of surplus ships as targets.
In 1963 The U.S. Post Office inaugurated its five-digit ZIP codes.
In 1966 Medicare federal insurance program goes into effect.
In 1968 The U.S., Britain, the Soviet Union and 58 other nations sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
In 1969 Britain's Prince Charles is invested as the Prince of Wales in a ceremony at Caernarvon Castle.
In 1971 The U.S. Post Office is replaced with the U.S. Postal Service.
In 1972 The TV sitcom "Bewitched" ends an eight-year run on ABC-TV.
In 1972 "Ms." magazine is published for the first time.
In 1979 The Sony Walkman is introduced.
In 1980 "O Canada" is proclaimed the national anthem of Canada.
In 1982 Kosmos 1383, the first search and rescue satellite, is launched.
In 1982 More than 2000 couples, members of the Unification Church, are married in a mass ceremony at New York's Madison Square Garden by the church's founder Reverend Sun Myung Moon.
In 1983 Inventor and philosopher R. Buckminster Fuller dies at age 87.
In 1984 The first broadcast of children's network Nickelodeon's "Nick At Nite" with classic TV episodes.
In 1985 The flagpole-sitting record is set at 488 days.
In 1985 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that public school teachers may not conduct classes in religiously affiliated schools.
In 1987 WFAN-AM/New York becomes the first 24-hour all-sports radio station.
In 1987 President Reagan nominates federal appeals court judge Robert H. Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court. Bork is rejected by the U.S. Senate.
In 1988 A 4-day national conference of Soviet Communist Party members ends in Moscow, with Mikhail Gorbachev winning approval for sweeping changes.
In 1990 A state treaty unifying the monetary and economic systems of East and West Germany goes into effect.
In 1991 President Bush nominates federal appeals court judge Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court, beginning a confirmation process marked by allegations of sexual harassment; Thomas won confirmation.
In 1991 Actor Michael Landon dies of cancer at the age of 54.
In 1992 California issues its first state IOUs since the Great Depression as a budget standoff left the state cashless on the first day of its fiscal year.
In 1993 A gunman opens fire in a San Francisco law office, killing 8 people and wounding 6 before killing himself.
In 1994 PLO chairman Yasser Arafat returns to Palestinian land after 27 years in exile as he drove from Egypt into Gaza, where he kissed the ground and prayed.
In 1995 Russian President Boris Yeltsin's government survives a critical no-confidence vote.
In 1996 12 members of Arizona anti-government group "Viper Militia" are charged with plotting to blow up government buildings.
In 1996 President Clinton declares emergency in drought-stricken parts of Southwest.
In 1996 Actress Margaux Hemingway, 41, is found dead in her Santa Monica, California, apartment.
In 1997 Hong Kong reverts back to Chinese rule after 156 years under British colonial government.
In 1997 Actor Robert Mitchum dies at age 79.
In 2000 The Confederate flag is removed from atop South Carolina's Statehouse. A smaller version is raised in front of Confederate soldier's monument on Statehouse grounds.
In 2000 Vermont's civil unions law, which gave homosexual couples most of the rights and benefits of marriage, goes into effect.
In 2000 Actor Walter Matthau dies in Santa Monica, CA, at age 79.
In 2002 A Russian passenger jet collides with a cargo plane over southern Germany, killing all 69 people on the Russian plane, and the two cargo jet pilots.
In 2002 The world's first permanent war crimes tribunal comes into existence.
In 2004 Actor Marlon Brando ("The Godfather," "Superman") dies at age 80.
In 2007 Smoking in England is banned in all public indoor spaces.

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