On This Day

[Raistlin]

1543 - England's King Henry VIII married his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr.

1690 - Protestant forces led by William of Orange defeated the Roman Catholic army of James II.

1691 - William III defeated the allied Irish and French armies at the Battle of Aughrim, Ireland.

1790 - The French Assembly approved a Civil Constitution providing for the election of priests and bishops.

1806 - The Confederation of the Rhine was established in Germany.

1862 - The U.S. Congress authorized the Medal of Honor.

1864 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln witnessed the battle where Union forces repelled Jubal Early's army on the outskirts of Washington, DC.

1912 - The first foreign-made film to premiere in America, "Queen Elizabeth", was shown.

1931 - A major league baseball record for doubles was set as the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs combined for a total of 23.

1933 - A minimum wage of 40 cents an hour was established in the U.S.

1941 - Moscow was bombed by the German Luftwaffe for the first time.

1946 - "The Adventures of Sam Spade" was heard on ABC radio for the first time.

1954 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposed a highway modernization program, with costs to be shared by federal and state governments.

1954 - The Major League Baseball Players Association was organized in Cleveland, OH.

1957 - The U.S. surgeon general, Leroy E. Burney, reported that there was a direct link between smoking and lung cancer.

1960 - The first Etch-A-Sketch went on sale.

1974 - John Ehrlichman, a former aide to U.S. President Nixon, and three others were convicted of conspiring to violate the civil rights of Daniel Ellsberg's former psychiatrist.

1982 - "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial" broke all box-office records by surpassing the $100-million mark of ticket sales in the first 31 days of its opening.

1982 - The last of the distinctive-looking Checker taxicabs rolled off the assembly line in Kalamazoo, MI.

1984 - Democratic presidential candidate Walter F. Mondale named U.S. Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York to be his running mate. Ferraro was the first woman to run for vice president on a major party ticket.

1990 - Russian republic president Boris N. Yeltsin announced his resignation from the the Soviet Communist Party.

1998 - 1.7 billion people watched soccer's World Cup finals between France and Brazil. France won 3-0.

1999 - Walt Disney Co. announced that it was merging all of its Internet operations together with Infoseek into Go.com.

2000 - Russia launched the Zvezda after two years of delays. The module was built to be the living quarters for the International Space Station (ISS.)

[Raistlin]

1099 - The Crusaders launched their final assault on Muslims in Jerusalem.

1534 - The Ottoman armies captured Tabriz in northwestern Persia.

1558 - Led by the court of Egmont, the Spanish army defeated the French at Gravelines, France.

1585 - A group of 108 English colonists, led by Sir Richard Grenville, reached Roanoke Island, NC.

1643 - In England, the Roundheads, led by Sir William Waller, were defeated by royalist troops under Lord Wilmot in the Battle of Roundway Down.

1754 - At the beginning of the French and Indian War, George Washington surrendered the small, circular Fort Necessity in southwestern Pennsylvania to the French.

1787 - The U.S. Congress, under the Articles of Confederation, enacted the Northwest Ordinance, which established the rules for governing the Northwest Territory, for admitting new states to the Union and limiting the expansion of slavery.

1812 - The first pawnbroking ordinance was passed in New York City.

1832 - Henry Schoolcraft discovered the source of the Mississippi River in Minnesota.

1835 - John Ruggles received patent #1 from the U.S. Patent Office for a traction wheel used in locomotive steam engines. All 9,957 previous patents were not numbered.

1863 - Opponents of the Civil War draft began three days of rioting in New York City, which resulted in more than 1,000 casualties.

1875 - David Brown patented the first cash-carrier system.

1878 - The Congress of Berlin divided the Balkans among European powers.

1896 - Philadelphia’s Ed Delahanty became the second major league player to hit four home runs in a single game.

1931 - A major German financial institution, Danabank, failed. This led to the closing of all banks in Germany until August 5.

1941 - Britain and the Soviet Union signed a mutual aid pact, that provided the means for Britain to send war material to the Soviet Union.

1954 - In Geneva, the United States, Great Britain and France reached an accord on Indochina which divided Vietnam into two countries, North and South, along the 17th parallel.

1972 - Carroll Rosenbloom (owner of the Baltimore Colts) and Robert Irsay (owner of the Los Angeles Rams) traded teams.

1973 - David Bedford set a new world record in the 10,000-meter race in London. His time was 27 minutes, 31 seconds.

1978 - Lee Iacocca was fired as president of Ford Motor Co. by chairman Henry Ford II.

1982 - The All-Star Game was played outside the United States for the first time. They played in Montreal, Canada.

1984 - In Arkansas, Terry Wallis was injured in a car accident and was left comatose. He came out of the coma in June of 2003.

1998 - "Image of an Assassination" went on sale. The video documentary is of Abraham Zapruder's home video of U.S. President Kennedy's assassination in Dallas.

1998 - RealNetworks Inc. rolled out a test version of RealSystem G2. G2 is a streaming video and audio delivery system.

2000 - The United States and Vietnam singed a major trade agreement. The pact still needed to be approved by the U.S. Congress.

[Raistlin]

0064 - The Great Fire of Rome began.

1536 - The authority of the pope was declared void in England.

1743 - "The New York Weekly Journal" published the first half-page newspaper ad.

1789 - Robespierre, a deputy from Arras, France, decided to back the French Revolution.

1812 - Great Britain signed the Treaty of Orebro, making peace with Russia and Sweden.

1830 - Uruguay adopted a liberal constitution.

1872 - The Ballot Act was passed in Great Britain, providing for secret election ballots.

1914 - Six planes of the U.S. Army helped to form an aviation division called the Signal Corps.

1927 - Ty Cobb set a major league baseball record by getting his 4,000th career hit. He hit 4,191 before he retired in 1928.

1932 - The U.S. and Canada signed a treaty to develop the St. Lawrence Seaway.

1935 - Ethiopian King Haile Selassie urged his countrymen to fight to the last man against the invading Italian army.

1936 - The first Oscar Meyer Wienermobile rolled out of General Body Company’s factory in Chicago, IL.

1936 - The Spanish Civil War began as Gen. Francisco Franco led an uprising of army troops based in Spanish North Africa.

1936 - "The Columbia Workshop" debuted on CBS radio.

1942 - The German Me-262, the first jet-propelled aircraft to fly in combat, made its first flight.

1944 - U.S. troops captured Saint-Lo, France, ending the battle of the hedgerows.

1944 - Hideki Tojo was removed as Japanese premier and war minister due to setbacks suffered by his country in World War II.

1947 - U.S. President Truman signed the Presidential Succession Act, which placed the Speaker of the House and the Senate President Pro Tempore next in the line of succession after the vice president.

1964 - Pete Rose (Cincinnati Reds) hit the only grand slam home run of his career.

1970 - Ron Hunt (San Francisco Giants) was hit by a pitch for the 119th time in his career.

1971 - New Zealand and Australia announced they would pull their troops out of Vietnam.

1985 - jack Nicklaus II, at age 23 years old, made his playing debut on the pro golf tour at the Quad Cities Open in Coal Valley, IL.

2000 - It was announced that Christopher Reeve would direct and serve as executive producer on the TV movie "Rescuing Jeffrey."

2001 - A train derailed, involving 60 cars, in a Baltimore train tunnel. The fire that resulted lasted for six days and virtually closed down downtown Baltimore for several days

[Raistlin]

1525 - The Catholic princes of Germany formed the Dessau League to fight against the Reformation.

1553 - Fifteen-year-old Lady Jane Grey was deposed as Queen of England after claiming the crown for nine days. Mary, the daughter of King Henry VIII, was proclaimed Queen.

1788 - Prices plunged on the Paris stock market.

1799 - The Rosetta Stone, a tablet with hieroglyphic translations into Greek, was found in Egypt.

1848 - The Women's Rights Convention took place in Seneca Fall, NY. Bloomers were introduced at the convention.

1870 - France declared war on Prussia.

1909 - The first unassisted triple play in major-league baseball was made by Cleveland Indians shortstop Neal Ball in a game against Boston.

1939 - Dr. Roy P. Scholz became the first surgeon to use fiberglass sutures.

1942 - German U-boats were withdrawn from positions off the U.S. Atlantic coast due to effective American anti-submarine countermeasures.

1943 - During World War II, more than 150 B-17 and 112 B-24 bombers attacked Rome for the first time.

1946 - Marilyn Monroe acted in her first screen test.

1960 - Juan Marichal (San Francisco Giants) became the first pitcher to get a one-hitter in his major league debut.

1974 - The House Judiciary Committee recommended that U.S. President Richard Nixon should stand trial in the Senate for any of the five impeachment charges against him.

1975 - The Apollo and Soyuz spacecrafts separated after being linked in orbit for two days.

1979 - In Nicaragua, the dictatorship of the Somozas was overthrown by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional or FSLN).

1982 - The U.S. Census Bureau reported that 14% of the population had an income below the official poverty level in 1981.

1984 - Geraldine Ferraro was nominated by the Democratic Party to become the first woman from a major political party to run for the office of U.S. Vice-President.

1985 - George Bell won first place in a biggest feet contest with a shoe size of 28-1/2. Bell, at age 26, stood 7 feet 10 inches tall.

1985 - Christa McAuliffe of New Hampshire was chosen to be the first schoolteacher to ride aboard the space shuttle. She died with six others when the Challenger exploded the following year.

[Raistlin]

1810 - Colombia declared independence from Spain.

1859 - Brooklyn and New York played baseball at Fashion Park Race Course on Long Island, NY. The game marked the first time that admission had been charged for to see a ball game. It cost $.50 to get in and the players on the field did not receive a salary (until 1863).

1861 - The Congress of the Confederate States began holding sessions in Richmond, VA.

1868 - Legislation that ordered U.S. tax stamps to be placed on all cigarette packs was passed.

1871 - British Columbia joined Confederation as a Canadian province.

1881 - Sioux Indian leader Sitting Bull, a fugitive since the Battle of the Little Big Horn, surrendered to federal troops. (Montana)

1908 - In the United States, the Sullivan Ordinance bars women from smoking in public facilities.

1917 - The draft lottery in World War I went into operation.

1935 - NBC radio debuted "G-men." The show was later renamed "Gangbusters."

1942 - The first detachment of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, (WACS) began basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa.

1944 - An attempt by a group of German officials to assassinate Adolf Hitler failed. The bomb exploded at Hitler's Rastenburg headquarters. Hitler was only wounded.

1944 - U.S. President Roosevelt was nominated for an unprecedented fourth term of office at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

1947 - The National Football League (NFL) ruled that no professional team could sign a player who had college eligibility remaining.

1961 - "Stop the World, I Want to Get Off" opened in London.

1969 - Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. became the first men to walk on the moon.

1974 - Turkish forces invaded Cyprus.

1976 - America's Viking I robot spacecraft made a successful landing on Mars.

1982 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan pulled the U.S. out of comprehensive test ban negotiations indefinitely.

1985 - Treasure hunters began raising $400 million in coins and silver from the Spanish galleon "Nuestra Senora de Atocha." The ship sank in 1622 40 miles of the coast of Key West, FL.

1992 - Vaclav Havel, the playwright who led the Velvet Revolution against communism, stepped down as president of Czechoslovakia.

1998 - Russia won a $11.2 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund to help avert the devaluation of its currency.

2003 - In India, elephants used for commercial work began wearing reflectors to avoid being hit by cars during night work.

[Raistlin]

1733 - John Winthrop was granted the first honorary Doctor of Law Degree given by Harvard College in Cambridge, MA.

1831 - Belgium became independent as Leopold I was proclaimed King of the Belgians.

1861 - The first major battle of the U.S. Civil War began. It was the Battle of Bull Run at Manassas Junction, VA. The Confederates won the battle.

1925 - The "Monkey Trial" ended in Dayton, TN. John T. Scopes was convicted of violating the state law for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution. The conviction was later overturned.

1930 - The Veterans’ Administration of the United States was established.

1931 - CBS aired the first regularly scheduled program to be simulcast on radio and television. The show featured singer Kate Smith, composer George Gershwin and New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker.

1931 - The Reno Race Track inaugurated the daily double in the U.S.

1940 - Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia were annexed by the Soviet Union.

1944 - American forces landed on Guam during World War II.

1947 - Loren MacIver’s portrait of Emmett Kelly as Willie the Clown appeared on the cover of "LIFE" magazine.

1949 - The U.S. Senate ratified the North Atlantic Treaty.

1954 - The Geneva Conference partitioned Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam.

1957 - Althea Gibson became the first black woman to win a major U.S. tennis title when she won the Women’s National clay-court singles competition.

1958 - The last of "Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts" programs aired on CBS-TV.

1959 - A U.S. District Court judge in New York City ruled that "Lady Chatterley’s Lover" was not a dirty book.

1961 - Capt. Virgil "Gus" Grissom became the second American to rocket into a sub-orbital pattern around the Earth. He was flying on the Liberty Bell 7.

1968 - Arnold Palmer became the first golfer to make a million dollars in career earnings after he tied for second place at the PGA Championship.

1980 - Draft registration began in the United States for 19 and 20-year-old men.

1987 - Mary Hart, of "Entertainment Tonight", had her legs insured by Lloyd’s of London for $2 million.

1997 - The U.S.S. Constitution, which defended the United States during the War of 1812, set sail under its own power for the first time in 116 years.

1998 - Chinese gymnast Sang Lan, 17, was paralyzed after a fall while practicing for the women's vault competition at the Goodwill Games in New York. Spinal surgery 4 days later failed to restore sensation below her upper chest.

2000 - NBC announced that they had found nearly all of Milton Berle's kinescopes. The filmed recordings of Berle's early TV shows had been the subject of a $30 million lawsuit filed by Berle the previous May.

2002 - WorldCom Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. At the time it was the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.

2004 - White House officials were briefed on the September 11 commission's final report. The 575-page report concluded that hijackers exploited "deep institutional failings within our government." The report was released to the public the next day.

2007 - The seventh and last book of the Harry Potter series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," was released.

2011 - Space Shuttle Atlantis landed at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It was the last flight of NASA's space shuttle program.

[Raistlin]

1715 - The first lighthouse in America was authorized for construction at Little Brewster Island, Massachusetts.

1827 - The first swimming school in the U.S. opened in Boston, MA.

1829 - William Burt patented the typographer, which was the first typewriter.

1877 - The first municipal railroad passenger service began in Cincinnati, Ohio.

1886 - Steve Brodie, a New York saloonkeeper, claimed to have made a daredevil plunge from the Brooklyn Bridge into the East River.

1904 - The ice cream cone was invented by Charles E. Menches during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, MO.

1914 - Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia following the killing of Archduke Francis Ferdinand by a Serb assassin. The dispute led to World War I.

1938 - The first federal game preserve was approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The area was 2,000 acres in Utah.

1945 - The first passenger train observation car was placed in service by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.

1952 - Egyptian military officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew King Farouk I.

1954 - A law is passed that states that "The Secretary of the Navy is authorized to repair, equip, and restore the United States Ship Constitution, as far as may be practicable, to her original appearance, but not for active service, and thereafter to maintain the United States Ship Constitution at Boston, Massachusetts."

1958 - The submarine Nautilus departed from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, under orders to conduct "Operation Sunshine." The mission was to be the first vessel to cross the north pole by ship. The Nautils achieved the goal on August 3, 1958.

1962 - The "Telstar" communications satellite sent the first live TV broadcast to Europe.

1972 - Eddie Merckx of Belgium won his fourth consecutive Tour de France bicycling competition.

1972 - The U.S. launched Landsat 1 (ERTS-1). It was the first Earth-resources satellite.

1984 - Miss America, Vanessa Williams, turned in her crown after it had been discovered that nude photos of her had appeared in "Penthouse" magazine. She was the first to resign the title.

1986 - Britain's Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey in London. They divorced in 1996.

1998 - U.S. scientists at the University of Hawaii turned out more than 50 "carbon-copy" mice, with a cloning technique.

2000 - Lance Armstrong won his second Tour de France.

[Raistlin]

1715 - The first lighthouse in America was authorized for construction at Little Brewster Island, Massachusetts.

1827 - The first swimming school in the U.S. opened in Boston, MA.

1829 - William Burt patented the typographer, which was the first typewriter.

1877 - The first municipal railroad passenger service began in Cincinnati, Ohio.

1886 - Steve Brodie, a New York saloonkeeper, claimed to have made a daredevil plunge from the Brooklyn Bridge into the East River.

1904 - The ice cream cone was invented by Charles E. Menches during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, MO.

1914 - Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia following the killing of Archduke Francis Ferdinand by a Serb assassin. The dispute led to World War I.

1938 - The first federal game preserve was approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The area was 2,000 acres in Utah.

1945 - The first passenger train observation car was placed in service by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.

1952 - Egyptian military officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew King Farouk I.

1954 - A law is passed that states that "The Secretary of the Navy is authorized to repair, equip, and restore the United States Ship Constitution, as far as may be practicable, to her original appearance, but not for active service, and thereafter to maintain the United States Ship Constitution at Boston, Massachusetts."

1958 - The submarine Nautilus departed from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, under orders to conduct "Operation Sunshine." The mission was to be the first vessel to cross the north pole by ship. The Nautils achieved the goal on August 3, 1958.

1962 - The "Telstar" communications satellite sent the first live TV broadcast to Europe.

1972 - Eddie Merckx of Belgium won his fourth consecutive Tour de France bicycling competition.

1972 - The U.S. launched Landsat 1 (ERTS-1). It was the first Earth-resources satellite.

1984 - Miss America, Vanessa Williams, turned in her crown after it had been discovered that nude photos of her had appeared in "Penthouse" magazine. She was the first to resign the title.

1986 - Britain's Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey in London. They divorced in 1996.

1998 - U.S. scientists at the University of Hawaii turned out more than 50 "carbon-copy" mice, with a cloning technique.

2000 - Lance Armstrong won his second Tour de France.

[Raistlin]

1847 - Mormon leader Brigham Young and his followers arrived in the valley of the Great Salt Lake in present-day Utah.

1847 - Richard M. Hoe patented the rotary-type printing press.

1849 - Georgetown University in Washington, DC, presented its first Doctor of music Degree. It was given to Professor Henry Dielman.

1866 - Tennessee became the first state to be readmitted to the Union after the U.S. Civil War.

1923 - The Treaty of Lausanne, which settled the boundaries of modern Turkey, was concluded in Switzerland.

1929 - U.S. President Hoover proclaimed the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which renounced war as an instrument of foreign policy.

1933 - The first broadcast of "The Romance of Helen Trent" was heard on radio. 7,222 episodes were aired.

1933 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his fourth "Fireside Chat."

1948 - Soviet occupation forces in Germany blockaded West Berlin. The U.S.-British airlift began the following day.

1956 - Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis ended their team. They ended the partnership a decade after it began on July 25, 1946.

1969 - The Apollo 11 astronauts splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean.

1974 - The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Nixon had to turn over subpoenaed White House tape recordings to the Watergate special prosecutor.

1978 - Billy Martin was fired for the first of three times as the manager of the New York Yankees baseball team.

1985 - Walt Disney released their 25th full-length cartoon. The work was "The Black Cauldron."

1987 - Hulda Crooks, at 91 years of age, climbed Mt. Fuji. Hulda became the oldest person to climb Japan’s highest peak.

1998 - Roy O. Disney received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

[Raistlin]

0326 - Constantine refused to carry out the traditional pagan sacrifices.

1394 - Charles VI of France issued a decree for the general expulsion of Jews from France.

1564 - Maximillian II became emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

1587 - Japanese strong-man Hideyoshi banned Christianity in Japan and ordered all Christians to leave.

1593 - France's King Henry IV converted from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism.

1759 - British forces defeated a French army at Fort Niagara in Canada.

1799 - Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the Ottomans at Aboukir, Egypt.

1805 - Aaron Burr visited New Orleans with plans to establish a new country, with New Orleans as the capital city.

1845 - China granted Belgium equal trading rights with Britain, France and the United States.

1850 - In Worcester, MA, Harvard and Yale University freshmen met in the first intercollegiate billiards match.

1850 - Gold was discovered in the Rogue River in OR.

1854 - The paper collar was patented by Walter Hunt.

1861 - The Crittenden Resolution, which called for the American Civil War to be fought to preserve the Union and not for slavery, was passed by the U.S. Congress.

1866 - Ulysses S. Grant was named General of the Army. He was the first American officer to hold the rank.

1868 - The U.S. Congress passed an act creating the Wyoming Territory.

1871 - Seth Wheeler patented perforated wrapping paper.

1907 - Korea became a protectorate of Japan.

1909 - French aviator Louis Bleriot flew across the English Channel in a monoplane. He traveled from Calais to Dover in 37 minutes. He was the first man to fly across the channel.

1914 - Russia declared that it would act to protect Serbian sovereignty.

1924 - Greece announced the deportation of 50,000 Armenians.

1939 - W2XBS TV in New York City presented the first musical comedy seen on TV. The show was "Topsy and Eva."

1941 - The U.S. government froze all Japanese and Chinese assets.

1943 - Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was overthrown in a coup.

1946 - The U.S. detonated an atomic bomb at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. It was the first underwater test of the device.

1946 - Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis staged their first show as a team at Club 500 in Atlantic City, NJ.

1947 - Fortune Gordien of Oslo, Norway set a world record discus throw of 178.47 feet.

1952 - Puerto Rico became a self-governing commonwealth of the U.S.

1978 - Louise Joy Brown, the first test-tube baby, was born in Oldham, England. She had been conceived through in-vitro fertilization.

1978 - Pete Rose (Cincinnati Red) broke the National League record for consecutive base hits as he got a hit in 38 straight games.

1984 - Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space. She was aboard the orbiting space station Salyut 7.

1987 - The Salt Lake City Trappers set a professional baseball record as the team won its 29th game in a row. (Utah)

1994 - Israel and Jordan formally ended the state of war that had existed between them since 1948.

1997 - K.R. Narayanan became India's president. He was the first member of the Dalits caste to do so.

1998 - The USS Harry S. Truman was commissioned and put into service by the U.S. Navy.

1999 - Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France. He was only the second American to win the race.

2010 - WikiLeaks leaked to the public more than 90,000 internal reports involving the U.S.-led War in Afghanistan from 2004-2010.

[Raistlin]

1775 - A postal system was established by the 2nd Continental Congress of the United States. The first Postmaster General was Benjamin Franklin.

1788 - New York became the 11th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1881 - Thomas Edison and Patrick Kenny execute a patent application for a facsimile telegraph (U.S. Pat. 479,184).

1893 - Commercial production of the Addressograph started in Chicago, IL.

1907 - The Chester was launched. It was the first turbine-propelled ship.

1908 - U.S. Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte issued an order that created an investigative agency that was a forerunner of the FBI.

1945 - Winston Churchill resigned as Britain's prime minister.

1947 - U.S. President Truman signed The National Security Act. The act created the National Security Council, the Department of Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

1948 - Babe Ruth was seen by the public for the last time, when he attended the New York City premiere of the motion picture, "The Babe Ruth Story."

1948 - U.S. President Truman signed executive orders that prohibited discrimination in the U.S. armed forces and federal employment.

1952 - King Farouk I of Egypt abdicated in the wake of a coup led by Gamal Abdel Nasser.

1953 - Fidel Castro began his revolt against Fulgencio Batista with an unsuccessful attack on an army barracks in eastern Cuba. Castro eventually ousted Batista six years later.

1956 - Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal.

1971 - Apollo 15 was launched from Cape Kennedy, FL.

1998 - AT&T and British Telecommunications PLC announced they were forming a joint venture to combine international operations and develop a new Internet system.

1999 - 1,500 pieces of Marilyn Monroe's personal items went on display at Christie's in New York, NY. The items went on sale later in 1999.

[Raistlin]

1214 - At the Battle of Bouvines in France, Philip Augustus of France defeated John of England.

1245 - Frederick II was deposed by a council at Lyons after they found him guilty of sacrilege.

1663 - The British Parliament passed a second Navigation Act, which required all goods bound for the colonies be sent in British ships from British ports.

1689 - Government forces defeated the Scottish Jacobites at the Battle of Killiecrankie.

1694 - The Bank of England received a royal charter as a commercial institution.

1775 - Benjamin Rush began his service as the first Surgeon General of the Continental Army.

1784 - "Courier De L’Amerique" became the first French newspaper to be published in the United States. It was printed in Philadelphia, PA.

1777 - The marquis of Lafayette arrived in New England to help the rebellious American colonists fight the British.

1778 - The British and French fleets fought to a standoff in the first Battle of Ushant.

1789 - The Department of Foreign Affairs was established by the U.S. Congress. The agency was later known as the Department of State.

1804 - The 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. With the amendment Electors were directed to vote for a President and for a Vice-President rather than for two choices for President.

1866 - Cyrus Field successfully completed the Atlantic Cable. It was an underwater telegraph from North America to Europe.

1909 - Orville Wright set a record for the longest airplane flight. He was testing the first Army airplane and kept it in the air for 1 hour 12 minutes and 40 seconds.

1914 - British troops invaded the streets of Dublin, Ireland, and began to disarm Irish rebels.

1918 - The Socony 200 was launched. It was the first concrete barge and was used to carry oil.

1921 - Canadian biochemist Frederick Banting and associates announced the discovery of the hormone insulin.

1940 - Bugs Bunny made his official debut in the Warner Bros. animated cartoon "A Wild Hare."

1944 - U.S. troops completed the liberation of Guam.

1947 - The World Water Ski Organization was founded in Geneva, Switzerland.

1953 - The armistice agreement that ended the Korean War was signed at Panmunjon, Korea.

1955 - The Allied occupation of Austria ended.

1964 - U.S. President Lyndon Johnson sent an additional 5,000 advisers to South Vietnam.

1965 - In the U.S., the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act was signed into law. The law required health warnings on all cigarette packages.

1967 - U.S. President Johnson appointed the Kerner Commission to assess the causes of the violence in the wake of urban rioting.

1974 - NBC-TV took "Dinah's Place" off of its daytime programming roster.

1974 - The U.S. Congress asked for impeachment procedures against President Richard Nixon.

1980 - The deposed shah of Iran, Muhammad Riza Pahlavi, died in a hospital near Cairo, Egypt.

1984 - Pete Rose passed Ty Cobb’s record for most singles in a career when he got his 3,503rd base hit.

1992 - Boston Celtics star Reggie Lewis died after collapsing on a Brandeis University basketball court during practice. He was 27 years old.

1993 - IBM's new chairman, Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., announced an $8.9 billion plan to cut the company's costs.

1995 - The Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, DC, by U.S. President Clinton and South Korean President Kim Young-sam.

1998 - Robert Vaughn received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1999 - The U.S. space shuttle Discovery completed a five-day mission commanded by Air Force Col. Eileen Collins. It was the first shuttle mission to be commanded by a woman.

2001 - The ribbon cutting ceremony was held for American Airlines Center in Dallas, TX. The event set two new world records, one for the 3 mile long ribbon and one for the 2,000 people that cut it.

2003 - It was reported by the BBC (British Broadcasting Corp.) that there was no monster in Loch Ness. The investigation used 600 separate sonar beams and satellite navigation technology to trawl the loch. Reports of sightings of the "Loch Ness Monster" began in the 6th century.

2006 - Intel Corp introduced its Core 2 Duo microprocessors.

[Raistlin]

1821 - Peru declared its independence from Spain.

1865 - The American Dental Association proposed its first code of ethics.

1866 - The metric system was legalized by the U.S. Congress for the standardization of weights and measures throughout the United States.

1868 - The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was declared in effect. The amendment guaranteed due process of law.

1896 - The city of Miami, FL, was incorporated.

1914 - World War I officially began when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.

1932 - Federal troops forcibly dispersed the "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans who had gathered in Washington, DC. They were demanding money they were not scheduled to receive until 1945.

1941 - Plans for the Pentagon were approved by the U.S. House of Representatives.

1942 - L.A. Thatcher received a patent for a coin-operated mailbox. The device stamped envelopes when money was inserted.

1945 - A U.S. Army bomber crashed into the 79th floor of New York City's Empire State Building. 14 people were killed and 26 were injured.

1951 - The Walt Disney film "Alice in Wonderland" was released.

1965 - U.S. President Johnson announced he was increasing the number of American troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000.

1973 - Lee Majors and Farrah Fawcett were married.

1982 - San Francisco, CA, became the first city in the U.S. to ban handguns.

1991 - Dennis Martinez (Montreal Expos) pitched the 13th perfect game in major league baseball history.

1994 - Kenny Rogers (Texas Rangers) pitched the 14th perfect game in major league baseball history.

1998 - Bell Atlantic and GTE announced $52 billion deal that created the second-largest phone company.

1998 - Serbian military forces seized the Kosovo town of Malisevo.

1998 - Monica Lewinsky received blanket immunity from prosecution to testify before a grand jury about her relationship with U.S. President Clinton.

2000 - Kathie Lee Gifford made her final appearance as co-host of the ABC talk show "Live with Regis and Kathie Lee."

2006 - Researchers announced that two ancient reptiles had been found off Australia. The Umoonasaurus and Opallionectes were the first of their kind to be found in the period soon after the Jurassic era.

[Raistlin]

1588 - The English defeated the Spanish Armada in the Battle of Gravelines.

1754 - The first international boxing match was held. The 25-minute match was won when jack Slack of Britain knocked out Jean Petit from France.

1773 - The first schoolhouse to be located west of the Allegheny Mountains was built in Schoenbrunn, OH.

1786 - "The Pittsburgh Gazette" became the first newspaper west of the Alleghenies to be published. The paper's name was later changed to "The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette."

1874 - Major Walter Copton Winfield of England received U.S. patent for the lawn-tennis court.

1914 - The first transcontinental telephone service was inaugurated when two people held a conversation between New York, NY and San Francisco, CA.

1940 - John Sigmund of St. Louis, MO, completed a 292-mile swim down the Mississippi River. The swim from St. Louis to Caruthersville, MO took him 89 hours and 48 minutes.

1950 - Disney's adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" was released.

1957 - jack Paar began hosting the "Tonight" show on NBC-TV. The name of the show was changed to "The jack Paar Show." Paar was host for five years.

1957 - The International Atomic Energy Agency was established.

1958 - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was authorized by the U.S. Congress.

1968 - Pope Paul VI reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's stance against artificial methods of birth control.

1975 - OAS (Organization of American States) members voted to lift collective sanctions against Cuba. The U.S. government welcomed the action and announced its intention to open serious discussions with Cuba on normalization.

1981 - England's Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer were married.

1983 - Steve Garvey (Los Angeles Dodgers) set the National League consecutive game record at 1,207.

1985 - General Motors announced that Spring Hill, TN, would be the home of the Saturn automobile assembly plant.

1993 - The Israeli Supreme Court acquitted retired Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk of being Nazi death camp guard "Ivan the Terrible." His death sentence was thrown out and he was set free.

1997 - Minamata Bay in Japan was declared free of mercury 40 years after contaminated food fish were blamed for deaths and birth defects.

1998 - The United Auto Workers union ended a 54-day strike against General Motors. The strike caused $2.8 billion in lost revenues.

2005 - Astronomers announced that they had discovered a new planet (Xena) larger than Pluto in orbit around the sun.

[Raistlin]

1502 - Christopher Columbus landed at Guanaja in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras during his fourth voyage.

1619 - The first representative assembly in America convened in Jamestown, VA. (House of Burgesses)

1729 - The city of Baltimore was founded in Maryland.

1733 - The first Freemasons lodge opened in what would later become the United States.

1898 - "Scientific America" carried the first magazine automobile ad. The ad was for the Winton Motor Car Company of Cleveland, OH.

1932 - Walt Disney's "Flowers and Trees" premiered. It was the first Academy Award winning cartoon and first cartoon short to use Technicolor.

1937 - The American Federation of Radio Artists (AFRA) was organized as a part of the American Federation of Labor.

1942 - The WAVES were created by legislation signed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The members of the Women's Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service were a part of the U.S. Navy.

1945 - The USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. The ship had just delivered key components of the Hiroshima atomic bomb to the Pacific island of Tinian. Only 316 out of 1,196 men aboard survived the attack.

1956 - The phrase "In God We Trust" was adopted as the U.S. national motto.

1965 - U.S. President Johnson signed into law Social Security Act that established Medicare and Medicaid. It went into effect the following year.

1968 - Ron Hansen (Washington Senators) made the first unassisted triple play in the major leagues in 41 years.

1974 - The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted to impeach President Nixon for blocking the Watergate investigation and for abuse of power.

1987 - Indian troops arrived in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, to disarm the Tamil Tigers and enforce a peace pact.

1990 - In Spring Hill, TN, the first Saturn automobile rolled off the assembly line.

1998 - A group of Ohio machine-shop workers (who call themselves the Lucky 13) won the $295.7 million Powerball jackpot. It was the largest-ever American lottery.

2000 - Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt were married.

2001 - Lance Armstrong became the first American to win three consecutive Tours de France.

2003 - In Mexico, the last 'old style' Volkswagon Beetle rolled off an assembly line.

[Raistlin]

1498 - Christopher Columbus, on his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, arrived at the island of Trinidad.

1790 - The first U.S. patent was issued to Samuel Hopkins for his process for making potash and pearl ashes. The substance was used in fertilizer.

1792 - The cornerstone of the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, PA, was laid. It was the first building to be used only as a U.S. government building.

1919 - Germany's Weimar Constitution was adopted.

1928 - MGM’s Leo the lion roared for the first time. He introduced MGM’s first talking picture, "White Shadows on the South Seas."

1932 - Enzo Ferrari retired from racing. In 1950 he launched a series of cars under his name.

1945 - Pierre Laval of France surrendered to Americans in Austria.

1948 - U.S. President Truman helped dedicate New York International Airport (later John F. Kennedy International Airport) at Idlewild Field.

1955 - Marilyn Bell of Toronto, Canada, at age 17, became the youngest person to swim the English Channel.

1959 - The Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) was founded. The group is known for being an armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization.

1961 - The first tie in All-Star Game major league baseball history was recorded when it was stopped in the 9th inning due to rain at Boston's Fenway Park.

1964 - The American space probe Ranger 7 transmitted pictures of the moon's surface.

1971 - Men rode in a vehicle on the moon for the first time in a lunar rover vehicle (LRV).

1981 - The seven-week baseball players’ strike came to an end when the players and owners agreed on the issue of free agent compensation.

1982 - Yugoslavia imposed a six-month freeze on prices.

1989 - A pro-Iranian group in Lebanon released a videotape reportedly showing the hanged body of American hostage William R. Higgins.

1991 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

1995 - The Walt Disney Company agreed to acquire Capital Cities/ABC in a $19 billion deal.

Disney movies, music and books

1999 - The spacecraft Lunar Prospect crashed into the moon. It was a mission to detect frozen water on the moon's surface. The craft had been launched on January 6, 1998.

[Raistlin]

1498 - Christopher Columbus landed on "Isla Santa" (Venezuela).

1619 - The first black Americans (20) land at Jamestown, VA.

1774 - Oxygen was isolated from air successfully by chemist Carl Wilhelm and scientist Joseph Priestly.

1790 - The first U.S. census was completed with a total population of 3,929,214 recorded. The areas included were the present states of Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia

1834 - Slavery was outlawed in the British empire with an emancipation bill.

1873 - Andrew S. Hallidie successfully tested a cable car. The design was done for San Francisco, CA.

1876 - Colorado became the 38th state to join the United States.

1893 - Shredded wheat was patented by Henry Perky and William Ford.

1894 - The first Sino-Japanese War erupted. The dispute was over control of Korea.

1907 - The U.S. Army established an aeronautical division that later became the U.S. Air Force.

1914 - Germany declared war on Russia at the beginning of World War I.

1936 - Adolf Hitler presided over the Olympic games as they opened in Berlin.

1944 - In Warsaw, Poland, an uprising against Nazi occupation began. The revolt continued until October 2 when Polish forces surrendered.

1946 - In the U.S., the Atomic Energy Commission was established.

1953 - The first aluminum-faced building was completed. It was the first of this type in America.

1956 - The Social Security Act was amended to provide benefits to disabled workers aged 50-64 and disabled adult children.

1957 - The North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) was created by the United States and Canada.

1973 - The movie "American Graffiti" opened.

1975 - The Helsinki accords pledged the signatory nations to respect human rights.

1976 - The Seattle Seahawks played their first (preseason) game. The Seahawks lost 27-20 to San Francisco.

1978 - Pete Rose (Cincinnati Reds) ended his streak of hitting in 44 consecutive games.

1986 - John McEnroe and Tatum O'Neal were married.

1986 - Bert Blyleven (Minnesota Twins) became only the 10th pitcher to strike out 3,000 batters in his career.

1988 - Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ" opened.

1993 - Reggie Jackson was admitted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.

1995 - Westinghouse Electric Corporation announced a deal to buy CBS for $5.4 billion.

1998 - The U.S. books and music chain Borders opens its first European outlet with a 40,000-square-foot store on London's Oxford Street.

2006 - Cuban leader Fidel Castro turned over absolute power when he gave his brother Raul authority while he underwent an intestinal surgery

[Raistlin]

1776 - Members of the Continental Congress began adding their signatures to the Declaration of Independence.

1782 - George Washington invented the Honorary Badge of Distinction.

1791 - Samuel Briggs and his son Samuel Briggs, Jr. received a joint patent for their nail-making machine. They were the first father-son pair to receive a patent.

1824 - In New York City, Fifth Avenue was opened.

1858 - In Boston and New York City the first mailboxes were installed along streets.

1861 - The United States Congress passed the first income tax. The revenues were intended for the war effort against the South. The tax was never enacted.

1887 - Rowell Hodge patented barbed wire.

1892 - Charles A. Wheeler patented the first escalator.

1921 - Eight White Sox players were acquitted of throwing the 1919 World Series.

1926 - John Barrymore and Mary Astor starred in the first showing of the Vitaphone System. The system was the combining of picture and sound for movies.

1938 - Bright yellow baseballs were used in a major league baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Chicago Cardinals. It was hoped that the balls would be easier to

see.

1939 - Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Roosevelt urging the U.S. to have an atomic weapons research program.

1939 - U.S. President Roosevelt signed the Hatch Act. The act prohibited civil service employees from taking an active part in political campaigns.

1943 - The U.S. Navy patrol torpedo boat, PT-109, sank after being attacked by a Japanese destroyer. The boat was under the command of Lt. John F. Kennedy.

1945 - The Allied conference at Potsdam was concluded.

1964 - The Pentagon reported the first of two North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.

1983 - U.S. House of Representatives approved a law that designated the third Monday of January would be a federal holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The law was

signed by President Reagon on November 2.

1987 - "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" was re-released. The film was 50 years old at the time of its re-release.

1990 - Iraq invaded the oil-rich country of Kuwait. Iraq claimed that Kuwait had driven down oil prices by exceeding production quotas set by OPEC.

1995 - China ordered the expulsion of two U.S. Air Force officers. The two were said to have been caught spying on military sights.

[Raistlin]

1492 - Christopher Columbus left Palos, Spain with three ships. The voyage would lead him to what is now known as the Americas. He reached the Bahamas on October 12.

1750 - Christopher Dock completed the first book of teaching methods. It was titled "A Simple and Thoroughly Prepared School Management."

1880 - The American Canoe Association was formed at Lake George, NY.

1900 - Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. was founded.

1914 - Germany declared war on France. The next day World War I began when Britain declared war on Germany.

1922 - WGY radio in Schenectady, NY, presented the first full-length melodrama on radio. The work was "The Wolf", written by Eugene Walter.

1923 - Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as the 30th president of the U.S. after the sudden death of President Harding.

1933 - The Mickey Mouse Watch was introduced for the price of $2.75.

1936 - The U.S. State Department advised Americans to leave Spain due to the Spanish Civil War.

1936 - Jesse Owens won the first of his four Olympic gold medals.

1943 - Gen. George S. Patton verbally abused and slapped a private. Later, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered him to apologize for the incident.

1949 - The National Basketball Association (NBA) was formed. The league was formed by the merger between the Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League.

1956 - Bedloe's Island had its name changed to Liberty Island.

1958 - The Nautilus became the first vessel to cross the North Pole underwater. The mission was known as "Operation Sunshine."

1979 - "More American Graffiti" was released.

1979 - Johnny Carson, the "Tonight Show" host, was on the cover of the Burbank, CA, telephone directory.

1981 - U.S. traffic controllers with PATCO, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, went on strike. They were fired just as U.S. President Reagan had warned.

1984 - Mary Lou Retton won a gold medal at the Los Angeles Summer Olympics.

1985 - Mail service returned to a nudist colony in Paradise Lake, FL. Residents promised that they'd wear clothes or stay out of sight when the mailperson came to deliver.

1988 - The Iran-Contra hearings ended. No ties were made between U.S. President Reagan and the Nicaraguan Rebels.

1988 - The Soviet Union released Mathias Rust. He had been taken into custody on May 28, 1987 for landing a plane in Moscow's Red Square.

1989 - Hashemi Rafsanjani was sworn in as the president of Iran.

1990 - Thousands of Iraqi troops pushed within a few miles of the border of Saudi Arabia. This heightened world concerns that the invasion of Kuwait could spread.

1992 - The U.S. Senate voted to restrict and eventually end the testing of nuclear weapons.

1992 - Russia and Ukraine agreed to put the Black Sea Fleet under joint command. The agreement was to last for three years.

1995 - Eyad Ismoil was flown from Jordan to the U.S. to face charges that he had driven the van that blew up in New York's World Trade Center.

2004 - In New York, the Statue of Liberty re-opened to the public. The site had been closed since the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on September 11, 2001.

2004 - NASA launched the spacecraft Messenger. The 6 1/2 year journey was planned to arrive at the planet Mercury in March 2011.

2009 - Bolivia became the first South American country to declare the right of indigenous people to govern themselves.

[Raistlin]

1735 - Freedom of the press was established with an acquittal of John Peter Zenger. The writer of the New York Weekly Journal had been charged with seditious libel by the royal governor of New York. The jury said that "the truth is not libelous."

1753 - George Washington became a Master Mason.

1790 - The Revenue Cutter Service was formed. This U.S. naval task force was the beginning of the U.S. Coast Guard.

1821 - "The Saturday Evening Post" was published for the first time as a weekly.

1914 - Britain declared war on Germany in World War I. The U.S. proclaimed its neutrality.

1921 - The first radio broadcast of a tennis match occurred. It was in Pittsburgh, PA.

1922 - The death of Alexander Graham Bell, two days earlier, was recognized by AT&T and the Bell Systems by shutting down all of its switchboards and switching stations. The shutdown affected 13 million phones.

1934 - Mel Ott became the first major league baseball player to score six runs in a single game.

1944 - Nazi police raided a house in Amsterdam and arrested eight people. Anne Frank, a teenager at the time, was one of the people arrested. Her diary would be published after her death.

1954 - The uranium rush began in Saskatchewan, Canada.

1956 - William Herz became the first person to race a motorcycle over 200 miles per hour. He was clocked at 210 mph.

1957 - Florence Chadwick set a world record by swimming the English Channel in 6 hours and 7 minutes.

1957 - Juan Fangio won his final auto race and captured the world auto driving championship. It was his the fifth consecutive year to win.

1958 - The first potato flake plant was completed in Grand Forks, ND.

1958 - Billboard Magazine introduced its "Hot 100" chart, which was part popularity and a barometer of the movement of potential hits. The first number one song was Ricky Nelson's "Poor Little Fool."

1972 - Arthur Bremer was found guilty of shooting George Wallace, the governor of Alabama. Bremer was sentenced to 63 years in prison.

1977 - U.S. President Carter signed the measure that established the Department of Energy.

1983 - New York Yankee outfielder Dave Winfield threw a baseball during warm-ups and accidentally killed a seagull. After the game, Toronto police arrested him for "causing unnecessary suffering to an animal."

1984 - Carl Lewis won a gold medal in the Los Angeles Olympics.

1984 - Upper Volta, an African republic, changed its name to Burkina Faso.

1985 - Tom Seaver of the Chicago White Sox achieved his 300th victory.

1985 - Rod Carew of the California angels got his 3,000th major league hit.

1986 - The United States Football League called off its 1986 season. This was after winning only token damages in its antitrust lawsuit against the National Football League.

1987 - The Fairness Doctrine was rescinded by the Federal Communications Commission. The doctrine had required that radio and TV stations present controversial issues in a balanced fashion.

1987 - A new 22-cent U.S. stamp honoring noted author William Faulkner, went on sale in Oxford, MS. Faulkner had been fired as postmaster of that same post office in 1924.

1989 - Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani offered to assist end the hostage crisis in Lebanon.

1990 - The European Community imposed an embargo on oil from Iraq and Kuwait. This was done to protest the Iraqi invasion of the oil-rich Kuwait.

1991 - The Oceanos, a Greek luxury liner, sank off of South Africa's southeast coast. All of the 402 passengers and 179 crewmembers survived.

1994 - Yugoslavia withdrew its support for Bosnian Serbs. The border between Yugoslavia and Serb-held Bosnia was sealed.

1996 - Josia Thugwane won a gold medal after finishing first in the marathon. He became the first black South African to win a gold medal.

1997 - Teamsters began a 15-day strike against UPS (United Parcel Service). The strikers eventually won an increase in full-time positions and defeated a proposed reorganization of the company's pension plan.

2009 - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il pardoned two American journalists, who had been arrested and imprisoned for illegal entry earlier in the year.

[Raistlin]

1833 - The village of Chicago was incorporated. The population was approximately 250.

1861 - The U.S. federal government levied its first income tax. The tax was 3% of all incomes over $800. The wartime measure was rescinded in 1872.

1864 - During the U.S. Civil War, Union forces led by Adm. David G. Farragut were led into Mobile Bay, Alabama.

1884 - On Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor, the cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid.

1914 - The electric traffic lights were installed in Cleveland, Ohio.

1921 - The first play-by-play broadcast of a baseball game was done by Harold Arlin. KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh, PA described the action between the Pirates and Philadelphia.

1921 - The cartoon "On the Road to Moscow", by Rollin Kirby, was published in the "New York World". It was the first cartoon to win a Pulitzer Prize.

1923 - Henry Sullivan became the first American to swim across the English Channel.

1924 - In the New York "Daily News" debuted the comic strip "Little Orphan Annie," by Harold Gray.

1944 - Polish insurgents liberated a German labor camp in Warsaw. 348 Jewish prisoners were freed.

1953 - During the Korean conflict prisoners were exchanged at Panmunjom. The exchange was labeled Operation Big Switch.

1960 - For the first time two major league baseball clubs traded managers. Detroit traded Jimmy Dykes for Cleveland's Joe Gordon.

1963 - The Limited Test Ban Treaty was signed by the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union. The treaty banned nuclear tests in space, underwater, and in the atmosphere.

1964 - U.S. aircraft bombed North Vietnam after North Vietnamese boats attacked U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.

1969 - The Mariner 7, a U.S. space probe, passed by Mars. Photographs and scientific data were sent back to Earth.

1974 - U.S. President Nixon said that he expected to be impeached. Nixon had ordered the investigation into the Watergate break-in to halt.

1974 - "Tank McNamara", the comic strip, premiered in 75 newspapers.

1981 - The U.S. federal government started firing striking air traffic controllers.

1984 - Toronto’s Cliff Johnson set a major league baseball record by hitting the 19th pinch-hit home run in his career.

1986 - It was revealed that artist Andrew Wyeth had secretly created 240 drawings and paintings of his neighbor. The works of Helga Testorf had been created over a 15-year period.

1989 - In Honduras, five Central American presidents began meeting to discuss the timetable for the dismantling of the Nicaraguan Contra bases.

1990 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush angrily denounced the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

1991 - An investigation was formally launched by Democratic congressional leaders to find out if the release of American hostages was delayed until after the Reagan-Bush presidential election.

1991 - Iraq admitted to misleading U.N. inspectors about secret biological weapons.

1992 - Federal civil rights charges were filed against four Los Angeles police officers. The officers had been acquitted on California State charges. Two of the officers were convicted and jailed on violation of civil rights charges.

1998 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein began not cooperating with U.N. weapons inspectors.

1998 - Marie Noe of Philadelphia, PA was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, accused of smothering eight of her children to death between 1949 and 1968. Noe later received 20 years' probation.

1999 - Mark McGwire (St. Louis Cardinals) hit his 500th career homerun. He also set a record for the fewest at-bats to hit the 500 homerun mark.

2002 - The U.S. closed its consulate in Karachi, Pakistan. The consulate was closed after local authorities removed large concrete blocks and reopened the road in front of the building to normal traffic.

2011 - NASA announced that its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter had captured photographic evidence of possible liquid water on Mars during warm seasons.

2011 - Juno was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on a mission to Jupiter. It was the first solar-powered spacecraft to go to Jupiter.

[Raistlin]

1787 - The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia began. The articles of the U.S. Constitution draft were to be debated.

1806 - The Holy Roman Empire went out of existence as Emperor Francis II abdicated.

1825 - Bolivia declared independence from Peru.

1879 - The first Australian rules football game to be played at night took place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The game was to promote the introduction of electricity to the city of Melbourne.

1890 - Cy Young achieved his first major league victory. He would accumulate 511 in his career.

1914 - Austria-Hungary declared war against Russia. Serbia declared war against Germany.

1926 - Gertrude Ederle became the first American woman to swim the English Channel. She was 19 years old at the time. The swim took her 14 1/2 hours.

1926 - Warner Brothers premiered its Vitaphone system in New York. The movie was "Don Juan," starring John Barrymore.

1939 - Dinah Shore started her own show on the NBC Blue radio network.

1945 - The American B-29 bomber, known as the Enola Gay, dropped the first atomic bomb on an inhabited area. The bomb named "Little Boy" was dropped over the center of Hiroshima, Japan. An estimated 140,000 people were killed.

1949 - Chicago White Sox player Luke Appling played in the 2,154th game of his 19-year, major league career.

1952 - Satchel Paige, at age 46, became the oldest pitcher to complete a major league baseball game.

1960 - Nationalization of U.S. and foreign-owned property in Cuba began.

1962 - Jamaica became an independent dominion within the British Commonwealth.

1965 - The Voting Rights Act was signed by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson.

1969 - The first fair ball to be hit completely out of Dodger Stadium occurred. Willie "Pops" Stargell, of the Pittsburgh Pirates, hit the ball 506 feet from home plate.

1981 - Fire fighters in Indianapolis, IN, answered a false alarm. When they returned to their station it was ablaze due to a grease fire.

1981 - Lee Trevino was disqualified from the PGA Championship in Duluth, GA when he had his scorecard signed by Tom Weiskopf instead of himself.

1985 - The 40th anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bombing brought tens of thousands of Japanese and foreigners to Hiroshima.

1986 - William J. Schroeder died. He lived 620 days with the Jarvik-7 manmade heart. He was the world's longest surviving recipient of a permanent artificial heart.

1986 - Timothy Dalton became the fourth actor to be named "James Bond."

1989 - Jaime Paz Zamora was inaugurated as the president of Bolivia.

1990 - The U.N. Security Council ordered a worldwide trade embargo with Iraq. The embargo was to punish Iraq for invading Kuwait.

1993 - The U.S. Senate confirmed Louis Freeh to be the director of the FBI.

1993 - Morihiro Hosokawa was elected prime minister of Japan.

1995 - Thousands of glowing lanterns were set afloat in rivers in Hiroshima, Japan, on the 50th anniversary of the first atomic bombing.

1996 - NASA announced the discovery of evidence of primitive life on Mars. The evidence came in the form of a meteorite that was found in Antarctica. The meteorite was believed to have come from Mars and contained a fossil.

1997 - Apple Computer and Microsoft agreed to share technology in a deal giving Microsoft a stake in Apple's survival.

1998 - Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky spent 8 1/2 hours testifying before a grand jury about her relationship with U.S. President Clinton.

1998 - The last new episode of Magic Johnson's talk show, "The Magic Hour," aired.

[Raistlin]

1789 - The U.S. War Department was established by the U.S. Congress.

1782 - George Washington created the Order of the Purple Heart.

1888 - Theophilus Van Kannel received a patent for the revolving door.

1914 - Germany invaded France.

1928 - The U.S. Treasure Department issued a new bill that was one third smaller than the previous U.S. bills.

1934 - The U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling striking down the government's attempt to ban the controversial James Joyce novel "Ulysses."

1942 - U.S. forces landed at Guadalcanal, marking the start of the first major allied offensive in the Pacific during World War II.

1947 - The balsa wood raft Kon-Tiki, which had carried a six-man crew 4,300 miles across the Pacific Ocean, crashed into a reef in a Polynesian archipelago.

1959 - The U.S. launched Explorer 6, which sent back a picture of the Earth.

1960 - The Cuban Catholic Church condemned the rise of communism in Cuba. Fidel Castro then banned all religious TV and radio broadcasts.

1964 - The U.S. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which gave President Johnson broad powers in dealing with reported North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. forces.

1974 - French stuntman Philippe Petit walked a tightrope strung between the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center.

1976 - Scientists in Pasadena, CA, announced that the Viking 1 spacecraft had found strong indications of possible life on Mars.

1981 - After 128 years of publication, "The Washington Star" ceased all operations.

1983 - AT&T employees went on strike.

1987 - The presidents of five Central American nations, met in Guatemala City, and signed an 11-point agreement designed to bring peace to their region.

1990 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush ordered U.S. troops and warplanes to Saudi Arabia to guard against a possible invasion by Iraq.

1999 - Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres got his 3,000th hit of his major league career.

2003 - In California, Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that he would run for the office of governor.

2003 - Stephen Geppi bought a 1963 G.I. Joe prototype for $200,000.

[Raistlin]

1356 - Edward "the Black Prince" began a raid north from Aquitaine.

1588 - The Spanish Armada was defeated by the English fleet ending an invasion attempt.

1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte set sail for St. Helena, in the South Atlantic. The remainder of his life was spent there in exile.

1844 - After the killing of Joseph Smith, Bringham Young was chosen to lead the Mormons.

1876 - Thomas Edison received a patent for the mimeograph. The mimeograph was a "method of preparing autographic stencils for printing."

1899 - The refrigerator was patented by A.T. Marshall.

1900 - In Boston, the first Davis Cup series began. The U.S. team defeated Great Britain three matches to zero.

1911 - The number of representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives was established at 435. There was one member of Congress for every 211,877 residents.

1940 - The German Luftwaffe began a series of daylight air raids on Great Britain.

1945 - The United Nations Charter was signed by U.S. President Truman.

1945 - During World War II, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan.

1950 - Whataburger opened its restaurant in Corpus Christi, TX.

1953 - The U.S. and South Korea initiated a mutual security pact.

1956 - Japan launched an oil tanker that was 780 feet long and weighed 84,730 tons. It was the largest oil tanker in the world.

1966 - Michael DeBakey became the first surgeon to install an artificial heart pump in a patient.

1974 - U.S. President Nixon announced that he would resign the following day.

1978 - The U.S. launched Pioneer Venus II, which carried scientific probes to study the atmosphere of Venus.

1988 - It was announced that a cease-fire between Iraq and Iran had begun.

1989 - The space shuttle Columbia took off from Cape Canaveral, FL. The trip was said to be a secret five-day military mission.

1990 - American forces began positioning in Saudia Arabia.

1991 - John McCarthy, a British TV producer was released by his Lebanese kidnappers. He had been held captive for more than five years. A rival group abducted Jerome Leyraud in retaliation and threatened to kill him if any more hostages were released.

1991 - The U.N. Security Council approved North and South Korea for membership.

1992 - The "Dream Team" clinched the gold medal at the Barcelona Summer Olympics. The U.S. basketball team beat Croatia 117-85.

1994 - The first road link between Israel and Jordan opened.

1994 - Representatives from China and Taiwan signed a cooperation agreement.

1995 - Saddam Hussein's two eldest daughters, their husbands, and several senior army officers defected.

1999 - Wade Boggs got his 3,000th hit of his major league baseball career.

2000 - The submarine H.L. Hunley was raised from ocean bottom after 136 years. The sub had been lost during an attack on the U.S.S. Housatonic in 1864. The Hunley was the first submarine in history to sink a warship.

[Raistlin]

1678 - American Indians sold the Bronx to Jonas Bronck for 400 beads.

1790 - The Columbia returned to Boston Harbor after a three-year voyage. It was the first ship to carry the American flag around the world.

1831 - The first steam locomotive began its first trip between Schenectady and Albany, NY.

1842 - The U.S. and Canada signed the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, which solved a border dispute.

1848 - Martin Van Buren was nominated for president by the Free-Soil Party in Buffalo, NY.

1854 - "Walden" was published by Henry David Thoreau.

1859 - The escalator was patented by Nathan Ames.

1892 - Thomas Edison received a patent for a two-way telegraph.

1893 - "Gut Holz" was published. It was America's first bowling magazine.

1910 - A.J. Fisher received a patent for the electric washing machine.

1930 - Betty Boop had her beginning in "Dizzy Dishes" created by Max Fleischer.

1936 - Jesse Owens won his fourth gold medal at the Berlin Olympics. He was the first American to win four medals in one Olympics.

1942 - Mohandas K. Gandhi was arrested Britain. He was not released until 1944.

1942 - CBS radio debuted "Our Secret Weapon."

1944 - The Forest Service and Wartime Advertising Council created "Smokey the Bear."

1945 - The U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. The bombing came three days after the bombing of Hiroshima. About 74,000 people were killed. Japan surrendered August 14.

1945 - The first network television broadcast occurred in Washington, DC. The program announced the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan.

1956 - The first statewide, state-supported educational television network went on the air in Alabama.

1965 - Singapore proclaimed its independence from the Malaysian Federation.

1973 - The U.S. Senate committee investigating the Watergate affair filed suit against President Richard Nixon.

1974 - U.S. PresidentRichard Nixon formally resigned. Gerald R. Ford took his place, and became the 38th president of the U.S.

1975 - The New Orleans Superdome as officially opened when the Saints played the Houston Oilers in exhibition football. The new Superdome cost $163 million to build.

1981 - Major league baseball teams resumed play at the conclusion of the first mid-season players’ strike.

1984 - Daley Thompson, of Britain, won his second successive Olympic decathlon.

1985 - Arthur J. Walker, a retired Navy officer, was found guilty of seven counts of spying for the Soviet Union.

1988 - Wayne Gretzky (Edmonton Oilers) was traded. The trade was at Gretzky's request. He was sent to the Los Angeles Kings.

1996 - Boris Yeltsin was sworn in as president of Russia for the second time.

1999 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin fired Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin and his entire cabinet for the fourth time in 17 months.

2001 - U.S. President George W. Bush announced he would support federal funding for limited medical research on embryonic stem cells.

2004 - Donald Duck received the 2,257th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2004 - Trump Hotel and Casion Resorts announced plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.