the day in the history

1832 - The first streetcar went into operation in New York City, NY. The vehicle was horse-drawn and had room for 30 people.

1851 - Herman Melville's novel "Moby Dick" was first published in the U.S.

1881 - Charles J. Guiteau's trial began for the assassination of U.S. President Garfield. Guiteau was convicted and hanged the following year.

1889 - New York World reporter Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) began an attempt to surpass the fictitious journey of Jules Verne's Phileas Fogg by traveling around the world in less than 80 days. Bly succeeded by finishing the journey the following January in 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes.

1922 - The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) began domestic radio service.

1935 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed the Philippine Islands a free commonwealth after its new constitution was approved. The Tydings-McDuffie Act planned for the Phillipines to be completely independent by July 4, 1946.

1940 - During World War II, German war planes destroyed most of the English town of Coventry when about 500 Luftwaffe bombers attacked.

1943 - Ernie Nevers of the St. Louis Cardinals became the first professional football player to score six touchdowns in a single game.

1956 - The USSR crushed the Hungarian uprising.

1968 - Yale University announced it was going co-educational.

1969 - Apollo 12 blasted off for the moon from Cape Kennedy, FL.

1969 - During the Vietnam War, Major General Bruno Arthur Hochmuth, commander of the Third Marine Division, became the first general to be killed in Vietnam by enemy fire.

1972 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above the 1,000 (1,003.16) level for the first time.

1972 - Blue Ribbon Sports became Nike.

1973 - Britain's Princess Anne married a commoner, Capt. Mark Phillips, in Westminster Abbey. They divorced in 1992, and Princess Anne re-married.

1979 - U.S. President Carter froze all Iranian assets in the United States and U.S. banks abroad in response to the taking of 63 American hostages at the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran.

1983 - The British government announced that U.S.-made cruise missiles had arrived at the Greenham Common air base amid protests.

1986 - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposed a record $100 million penalty against Ivan F. Boesky for insider-trading and barred him from working again in the securities industry.

1987 - In the lobby of Beirut's American University Hospital a bomb hidden in a box of chocolates exploded. Seven people were killed including the woman carrying the box.

1988 - Israeli President Chaim Herzog formally asked Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir to form a new government.

1989 - The U.S. Navy ordered an unprecedented 48-hour stand-down in the wake of a recent string of serious accidents.

1990 - Simon and Schuster announced it had dropped plans to publish Bret Easton Ellis novel "American Psycho."

1991 - U.S. and British authorities announced indictments against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the bombing of Lockerbie - Pan Am Flight 103.

1991 - After 13 years in exile Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk returned to his homeland.

1994 - U.S. experts visited North Korea's main nuclear complex for the first time under an accord that opened such sites to outside inspections.

1995 - The U.S. government instituted a partial shutdown, closing national parks and museums while most government offices operated with skeleton crews.

1940: Germans bomb Coventry to destruction

The German Luftwaffe bombs Coventry in a massive raid leaving much of the city devastated.

Garret FitzGerald and Margaret Thatcher signing agreeement 1985: Anglo-Irish agreement signed
Britain and the Republic of Ireland sign a deal giving Dublin a role in Northern Ireland for the first time in more than 60 years - unionists accuse Mrs Thatcher or treachery.

An EA-6B Prowler lands on the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz in the Persian Gulf , Jan 1998 1998: Iraqi climbdown averts air strikes
Britain and America call back their bombers after Iraq agrees to allow UN weapons inspectors back into the country.

Soldiers guarding rubber plantation 1951: Murder on Malay rubber estate
Anti-government rebels kill 11 people in an attack on a rubber plantation in Malaya.

Wedding day of Princess Anne and Mark Phillips 1977: Princess Anne gives birth to Master Phillips
Princess Anne gives birth to a boy - the first royal baby to be born a commoner for more than 500 years.

1777 - The Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation, precursor to the U.S. Constitution.

1806 - Explorer Zebulon Pike spotted the mountaintop that became known as Pikes Peak.

1889 - Brazil's monarchy was overthrown.

1901 - Miller Reese patented an electrical hearing aid.

1902 - Anarchist Gennaro Rubin failed in his attempt to murder King Leopold II of Belgium.

1920 - The League of Nations met for the first time in Geneva, Switzerland.

1926 - The National Broadcasting Co. (NBC) debuted with a radio network of 24 stations. The first network radio broadcast was a four-hour "spectacular."

1939 - U.S. President Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC.

1940 - The first 75,000 men were called to Armed Forces duty under peacetime conscription.

1965 - The Soviet probe, Venera 3, was launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. On March 1, 1966, it became the first unmanned spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet when it crashed on Venus.

1966 - The flight of Gemini 12 ended successfully as astronauts James A. Lovell and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. splashed down safely in the Atlantic Ocean.

1969 - In Washington, DC, a quarter of a million protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the Vietnam War.

1985 - Britain and Ireland signed an accord giving Dublin an official consultative role in governing Northern Ireland.

1986 - A government tribunal in Nicaragua convicted American Eugene Hasenfus of charges related to his role in delivering arms to Contra rebels. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison and was pardoned a month later.

1986 - Ivan F. Boesky, reputed to be the highest-paid person on Wall Street, faced penalties of $100 million for insider stock trading. It was the highest penalty ever imposed by the SEC.

1988 - The Palestine National Council, the legislative body of the PLO, proclaimed the establishment of an independent Palestinian state at the close of a four-day conference in Algiers.

1992 - Richard Petty drove in the final race of his 35-year career.

1993 - A judge in Mineola, NY, sentenced Joey Buttafuoco to six months in jail for the statutory rape of Amy Fisher. Fisher was serving a prison sentence for shooting and wounding Buttafuoco's wife, Mary Jo.

1995 - Texaco agreed to pay $176 million to settle a race-discrimination lawsuit.

1999 - Representatives from China and the United States signed a major trade agreement that involved China's membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO).

1983: England fans rampage in Luxembourg

More than 20 English football supporters are arrested in Luxembourg after a night of violence.

Anthony Blunt 1979: Blunt revealed as 'fourth man'
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher names Sir Anthony Blunt, a former security service officer, as the "fourth man" in the Philby affair.

Bank of America 1976: Bank robbers jailed for 100 years
Seven men who took part in an £8m bank robbery receive jail terms totalling nearly 100 years.

Gilbert Harding 1960: TV star famed for rudeness dies
The TV personality with a reputation for outspokenness, Gilbert Harding, dies as he leaves the BBC's Broadcasting House in London.

Queen Mother greets the crowds on her 95th birthday, Aug 1995 1995: Queen mum hip op 'successful'
The Queen Mother has had her right hip replaced in an operation in London.

1776 - British troops captured Fort Washington during the American Revolution.

1864 - Union Gen. William T. Sherman and his troops began their "March to the Sea" during the U.S. Civil War.

1885 - Canadian rebel Louis Riel was executed for high treason.

1907 - Oklahoma was admitted as the 46th state.

1933 - The United States and the Soviet Union established diplomatic relations for the first time.

1952 - In the Peanuts comic strip, Lucy first held a football for Charlie Brown.

1957 - Jim Brown (Cleveland Browns) set an NFL season rushing record of 1163 yards after only eight games.

1966 - Dr. Samuel H. Sheppard was acquitted in his second trial of charges he had murdered his pregnant wife, Marilyn, in 1954.

1969 - The U.S. Army announced that several had been charged with massacre and the subsequent cover-up in the My Lai massacre in Vietnam on March 16, 1968.

1973 - Skylab 3 carrying a crew of three astronauts, was launched from Cape Canaveral, FL, on an 84-day mission.

1973 - U.S. President Nixon signed the Alaska Pipeline measure into law.

1981 - A vaccine for hepatitis B was approved. The vaccine had been developed at Merck Institute for Therapeutic Research.

1982 - An agreement was announced on the 57th day of a strike by National Football League (NFL) players.

1988 - Estonia's parliament declared that the Baltic republic "sovereign," but stopped short of complete independence.

1997 - China released Wei Jingsheng, a pro-democracy dissident from jail for medical reasons. He had been incarcerated for almost 18 years.

1998 - In Burlington, Wisconsin, five high school students, aged 15 to 16, were arrested in an alleged plot to kill a carefully selected group of teachers and students.

1998 - It was announced that Monica Lewinsky had signed a deal for the North American rights to a book about her affair with U.S. President Clinton.

1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court said that union members could file discrimination lawsuits against employers even when labor contracts require arbitration.

2000 - Bill Clinton became the first serving U.S. president to visit Communist Vietnam.

1978: Mass suicide leaves 900 dead

The bodies of 914 people, including 276 children, are found in Guyana in South America.

Emergency services at Kings Cross 1987: King's Cross station fire 'kills 27'
Twenty seven people are dead after a fire at King's Cross station in central London.

Protesters in Sofia 1989: Protesters demand reform in Bulgaria
More than 50,000 people take to the streets of Sofia in Bulgaria demanding political reform.
1991: Church envoy Waite freed in Beirut
Church envoy Terry Waite is freed by the Islamic extremists who kidnapped him in Beirut in 1987.

Cattle behind locked gates with infected area notice on gate 1967: Moves to curb spread of foot-and-mouth
A ban on the movement of farm animals across the whole of England and Wales came into effect at midnight.

1477 - William Caxton produced "Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres," which was the first book to be printed in England.

1820 - Captain Nathaniel Palmer became the first American to sight the continent of Antarctica.

1865 - Samuel L. Clemens published "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" under the pen name "Mark Twain" in the New York "Saturday Press."

1883 - The U.S. and Canada adopted a system of standard time zones.

1903 - The U.S. and Panama signed a treaty that granted the U.S. rights to build the Panama Canal.

1928 - The first successful sound-synchronized animated cartoon premiered in New York. It was Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie," starring Mickey Mouse.

1916 - Douglas Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force in World War I, calls off the Battle of the Somme in France. The offensive began on July 1, 1916.

1936 - Germany and Italy recognized the Spanish government of Francisco Franco.

1942 - "The Skin of Our Teeth," by Thornton Wilder opened on Broadway.

1951 - Chuck Connors (Los Angeles Angels) became the first player to oppose the major league draft. Connors later became the star of the television show "The Rifleman."

1959 - William Wyler's "Ben-Hur" premiered at Loew's Theater in New York City's Times Square.

1966 - U.S. Roman Catholic bishops did away with the rule against eating meat on Fridays.

1976 - The parliament of Spain approved a bill that established a democracy after 37 years of dictatorship.

1978 - In Jonestown, Guyana, Reverend Jim Jones persuaded his followers to commit suicide by drinking a death potion. Some people were shot to death. 914 cult members were left dead including over 200 children.

1987 - The U.S. Congress issued the Iran-Contra Affair report. The report said that President Ronald Reagan bore "ultimate responsibility" for wrongdoing by his aides.

1987 - 31 people died in a fire at King's Cross, London's busiest subway station.

1987 - CBS Inc. announced it had agreed to sell its record division to Sony Corp. for about $2 billion.

1988 - U.S. President Reagan signed major legislation provided the death penalty for drug traffickers who kill.

1991 - Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon freed Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland.

1993 - The U.S. House of Representatives joined the U.S. Senate in approving legislation aimed at protecting abortion facilities, staff and patients.

1993 - American Airlines flight attendants went on strike. They ended their strike only 4 days later.

1993 - Representatives from 21 South African political parties approved a new constitution.

1994 - Outside a mosque in the Gaza Strip, 15 people were killed and more than 150 wounded when Palestinian police opened fire on rioting worshipers.

1997 - The FBI officially pulled out of the probe into the TWA Flight 800 disaster. They said the explosion that destroyed the Boeing 747 was not caused by a criminal act. 230 people were killed.

1997 - First Union Corp. announced its purchase of CoreStates Financial Corp. for $16.1 billion. To date it was the largest banking deal in U.S. history.

1999 - 12 people were killed and 28 injured when a huge bonfire under construction collapsed at Texas A&M in College Station, TX.


2001 - Nintendo released the GameCube home video game console in the United States.

1977: Egyptian leader's Israel trip makes history

The president of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, becomes the first Arab leader ever to visit Israel.

Noel Edmonds 1994: Britain braced for first lottery draw
Britain's first national lottery draw is about to be shown live on a flagship BBC One show.

Tony Bland 1992: Hillsborough victim allowed to die
Doctors treating Hillsborough victim Tony Bland can disconnect feeding tubes keeping him alive, a judge at the High Court in London rules.

Geneva 1985: Superpower summit 'off to good start'
The first meeting in six years between the world's superpowers begins in Switzerland.

Harold Wilson in his study 1967: Wilson defends 'pound in your pocket'
The Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, stands by his decision to devalue the pound saying it will tackle the "root cause" of Britain's economic problems.

1794 - The U.S. and Britain signed the Jay Treaty, which resolved the issues left over from the Revolutionary War.

1850 - The first life insurance policy for a woman was issued. Carolyn Ingraham, 36 years old, bought the policy in Madison, NJ.

1863 - U.S. President Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address as he dedicated a national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania.

1893 - The first newspaper color supplement was published in the Sunday New York World.

1895 - The "paper pencil" was patented by Frederick E. Blaisdell.

1919 - The U.S. Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles with a vote of 55 in favor to 39 against. A two-thirds majority was needed for ratification.

1928 - "Time" magazine presented its cover portrait for the first time. Japanese Emperor Hirohito was the magazine's first cover subject.

1942 - During World War II, Russian forces launched their winter offensive against the Germans along the Don front.

1954 - Two automatic toll collectors were placed in service on the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey.

1959 - Ford Motor Co. announced it was ending the production of the unpopular Edsel.

1966 - Sandy Koufax (Los Angeles Dodgers) announced his retirement from major league baseball.

1969 - Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean made man's second landing on the moon.

1970 - Hafiz al-Assad seized power in Syria.

1977 - Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to set foot in Israel on an official visit.

1979 - Nolan Ryan (Houston Astros) signed a four-year contract for $4.5 million. At the time, Ryan was the highest paid player in major league baseball.

1984 - Almost 500 people died in a firestorm after a series of explosions at a Mexico City petroleum storage plant.

1984 - Dwight Gooden, 20-year-old, of the New York Mets, became the youngest major-league pitcher to be named Rookie of the Year in the National League. (MLB)

1985 - U.S. President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev met for the first time as they began their summit in Geneva.

1990 - NATO and the Warsaw Pact signed a treaty of nonaggression.

1993 - The U.S. Senate approved a sweeping $22.3 billion anti-crime measure.

1994 - The U.N. Security Council authorized NATO to bomb rebel Serb forces striking from neighboring Croatia.

1997 - In Carlisle, IA, septuplets were born to Bobbi McCaughey. It was only the second known case where all seven were born alive.

1998 - The impeachment inquiry of U.S. President Clinton began.

1998 - Vincent van Gogh's "Portrait of the Artist Without Beard" sold at auction for more than $71 million.

1998 - Michelle Lee received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1999 - In Istanbul, Turkey, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) concluded a two-day summit after adopting a new arms accord. During the conference, Russia was criticized for its military campaign against Chechnya's separatist movement.

2001 - U.S. President George W. Bush signed the most comprehensive air security bill in U.S. history.

2002 - The oil tanker Prestige broke into two pieces and sank off northwest Spain. The tanker lost about 2 million gallons of fuel oil when it ruptured November 13th and was towed about 150 miles out to sea.

2002 - The U.S. government completed its takeover of security at 424 airports nationwide.

2003 - Eight competing designs for a memorial to the victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center were unveiled. One design would be built at the site of the World Trade Center.

2003: British targets bombed in Istanbul

At least 27 people, including the British consul-general, die in two suicide bomb attacks in the Turkish capital, Istanbul.

Windsor Castle on fire 1992: Blaze rages in Windsor Castle
A fierce blaze is raging through Windsor Castle in Berkshire, threatening one of the world's greatest collections of art.

Moors murderer Myra Hindley 1986: Police renew hunt for Moors victims
Police begin a search for more victims of the Moors murderers, after receiving new information from Myra Hindley.

1978: Liberal MP accused of murder plot
Former Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe is accused in court of plotting to kill his former homosexual lover.

British troops in an armoured car 1951: British families leave Egypt's Canal Zone
More than 1,000 families of British service men have begun moving out of the Canal Zone town of Ismailia.

1620 - Peregrine White was born aboard the Mayflower in Massachusetts Bay. White was the first child to be born of English parents in present-day New England.

1789 - New Jersey became the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights.

1818 - Simon Bolivar formally declared Venezuela independent of Spain.

1873 - Budapest was formed when the rival cities of Buda and Pest were united to form the capital of Hungary.

1889 - Astronomer Edwin Hubble was born. Hubble discovered and developed the concept of an expanding universe. In 1924 he proved the existence of galaxies other than our own.

1901 - The second Hay-Pauncefoot Treaty provided for construction of the Panama Canal by the U.S.

1910 - Francisco I. Madero led a revolution that broke out in Mexico.

1925 - Robert Francis Kennedy was born in Brookline, MA.

1929 - The radio program "The Rise of the Goldbergs," later known as "The Goldbergs," made its debut on the NBC Blue Network.

1943 - During World War II, U.S. Marines began their landing on Tarawa and Makin atolls in the Gilbert Islands.

1945 - 24 Nazi leaders went before an international war crimes tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany.

1947 - Britain's Princess Elizabeth married Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh in Westminster Abbey.

1959 - Britain, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark and Sweden met to create the European Free Trade Association.

1962 - The Cuban Missile Crisis ended. The Soviet Union removed its missiles and bombers from Cuba and the U.S. ended its blockade of the island.

1962 - Mickey Mantle was named the American League Most Valuable Player for the third time.

1967 - The Census Clock at the Department of Commerce in Washington, DC, went past 200 million.

1969 - The Nixon administration announced a halt to residential use of the pesticide DDT as part of a total phase out of the substance.

1970 - The majority in U.N. General Assembly voted to give China a seat, but two-thirds majority required for admission was not met.

1975 - After nearly 40 years of absolute rule Spain's General Francisco Franco died.

1977 - Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to address Israel's parliament.

1983 - An estimated 100 million people watched the controversial ABC-TV movie "The Day After." The movie depicted the outbreak of nuclear war.

1986 - Dr. Halfdan Maher, the director of the World Health Organization, announced the first coordinated global effort to fight the disease AIDS.

1987 - Police investigating the fire at King's Cross, London's busiest subway station, said that arson was unlikely to be the cause of the event that took 31 lives.

1988 - Egypt and China announced that they would recognize the Palestinian state proclaimed by the Palestine National Council.

1989 - Over 200,000 people rallied peacefully in Prague, Czechoslovakia, demanding democratic reforms.

1990 - Saddam Hussein ordered another 250,000 Iraqi troops into the country of Kuwait.

1990 - The space shuttle Atlantis landed at Cape Canaveral, FL, after completing a secret military mission.

1992 - A fire seriously damaged the northwest side of Windsor Castle in England.

1993 - The U.S. Senate passed the Brady Bill and legislation implementing NAFTA.

1994 - The Angolan government and rebels signed a treaty in Zambia to end 19 years of war.

1995 - Princess Diana admitted being unfaithful to Prince Charles in an interview that was broadcast on BBC Television.

1998 - Afghanistan's Taliban militia offered Osama bin Laden safe haven. Osama bin Laden had been accused of orchestrating two U.S. embassy bombings in Africa and later terrorist attacks on New York City and the Pentagon.

1998 - Forty-six states agreed to a $206 billion settlement of health claims against the tobacco industry. The industry also agreed to give up billboard advertising of cigarettes.

2001 - The U.S. Justice Department headquarters building was renamed the Robert F. Kennedy building by President George W. Bush. The event was held on what would have been Kennedy's 76th birthday.

Perhaps worth to be remembered this day as well:


1815: In the final phases of the Napoleonic Wars, Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia renewed the Quadruple Alliance to prevent further French aggression.

1858: Selma Lagerlöf is born in Mårbacka, Sweden.
She was a novelist whose work is rooted in legend and saga. In 1909 she became the first woman and the first Swedish writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

1910: Russian author Leo Tolstoy, suffering from pneumonia, died of heart failure at the railroad station of Astapavo.

1917: For the first time, tanks were used effectively in warfare, by the British at the Battle of Cambrai.

1949, Indonesia achieved independence from Netherlands.

Indonesia proclaimed independence on 17 August 1945 and on 27 December 1949 the Netherlands recognized Indonesian independence.

Welcome to A2K, stford!

1974: Birmingham pub blasts kill 19

Two bombs explode in central Birmingham pubs, killing 19 and injuring over 180.

Slobodan Milosevic and Richard Holbrooke 1995: Balkan leaders agree to peace
The United States brokers a peace settlement for Bosnia Herzegovina in Dayton, to be enforced by 60,000 Nato troops.

Fred Peart 1967: Foot-and-mouth slaughter rate soars
The number of animals slaughtered in the latest epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease reaches a record high of 134,000.

Michael Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan 1985: Superpowers aim for 'safer world'
The Geneva summit between the US and the Soviet Union ends in optimism but with no agreement on the "Star Wars" space defence system.

1620 - The Mayflower reached Provincetown, MA. The ship discharged the Pilgrims at Plymouth, MA, on December 26, 1620.

1694 - French author and philosopher Jean Francois Voltaire was born. At age 65 he spent only three days writing "Candide."

1783 - The first successful flight was made in a hot air balloon. The pilots, Francois Pilatre de Rosier and Francois Laurent, Marquis d'Arlandes, flew for 25 minutes and 5½ miles over Paris.

1789 - North Carolina became the 12th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1871 - M.F. Galethe patented the cigar lighter.

1877 - Thomas A. Edison announced the invention of his phonograph.

1922 - Rebecca L. Felton of Georgia was sworn in as the first woman to serve as a member of the U.S. Senate.

1929 - Spanish surrealist Salvador Dali had his first art exhibit.

1934 - The New York Yankees purchased the contract of Joe DiMaggio from San Francisco of the Pacific Coast League.

1942 - The Alaska highway across Canada was formally opened.

1953 - British Natural History Museum authorities announced that "Piltdown Man" was a hoax.

1962 - U.S. President Kennedy terminated the quaratine measures against Cuba.

1963 - U.S. President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline, arrived in San Antonio, TX. They were beginning an ill-fated, two-day tour of Texas that would end in Dallas.

1973 - U.S. President Richard M. Nixon's attorney, J. Fred Buzhardt, announced the presence of an 18½-minute gap in one of the White House tape recordings related to the Watergate case.

1979 - The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, was attacked by a mob that set the building afire and killed two Americans.

1980 - An estimated 83 million viewers tuned in to find out "who shot J.R." on the CBS prime-time soap opera Dallas. Kristin was the character that fired the gun.

1980 - 87 people died in a fire at the MGM Grand Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas, NV.

1982 - The National Football League (NFL) resumed its season following a 57-day player's strike.

1985 - Former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay Pollard was arrested after being accused of spying for Israel. He was later sentenced to life in prison.

1987 - An eight-day siege began at a detention center in Oakdale, LA, as Cuban detainees seized the facility and took hostages.

1989 - The proceedings of Britain's House of Commons were televised live for the first time.

1992 - U.S. Senator Bob Packwood, issued an apology but refused to discuss allegations that he'd made unwelcome sexual advances toward 10 women in past years.

1993 - The U.S. House of Representatives voted against making the District of Columbia the 51st state.

1994 - NATO warplanes bombed an air base in Serb-held Croatia that was being used by Serb planes to raid the Bosnian "safe area" of Bihac.

1995 - France detonated its fourth underground nuclear blast at a test site in the South Pacific.

1995 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above the 5,000-mark (5,023.55) for the first time.

1999 - China announced that it had test-launched an unmanned space capsule that was designed for manned spaceflight.

2000 - The Florida Supreme Court granted Al Gore's request to keep the presidential recounts going.

2001 - Microsoft Corp. proposed giving $1 billion in computers, software, training and cash to more than 12,500 of the poorest schools in the U.S. The offer was intended as part of a deal to settle most of the company's private antitrust lawsuits.

2002 - NATO invited Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia to become members.

Policing up the battle zone, Jan. 1, 1891, at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.



Twenty Congressional Medals Of Honor were awarded to the
Seventh Cavalry for this the last skirmish of the Indian Wars.

Ah, the end of " the war to end all wars"...November 11.

And to think all the butchery of WWI was over an assassination in
sarajevo sort of makes me wonder if there was more to this war than simply aggression. No one
picked on Britain or the U.S. Like, the whole world eagerly jumped in. Alliances were loyally adhered to back then,
I suppose.
Sure got a lot of kids off the farm, though.

England went to war because she had signed the agreement which created the nation of Belgium, and by which she agreed to guarantee the neutrality and the territorial integrity of Belgium. I honor that nation and the almost one million Englishman who gave their lives to oppose unprovoked aggression. The United States went to war over submarine warfare.

Of course, conspiracy theories are more fun, no matter how goofy they are--so, believe what you like.

Remember Rommel "the desert fox"?

Late in the war, Rommel was linked to the conspiracy to kill Adolf Hitler. Because Rommel was widely renowned, Hitler chose to eliminate him quietly; in trade for assurances his family would be spared, Rommel agreed to commit suicide.

Winston Churchill paid a tribute to him.