On This Day

[Raistlin]

1099 - Christian soldiers on the First Crusade march around Jerusalem.

1608 - The first French settlement at Quebec was established by Samuel de Champlain.

1663 - King Charles II of England granted a charter to Rhode Island.

1693 - Uniforms for police in New York City were authorized.

1709 - Peter the Great defeated Charles XII at Poltava, in the Ukraine, The Swedish empire was effectively ended.

1755 - Britain broke off diplomatic relations with France as their disputes in the New World intensified.

1776 - Col. John Nixon gave the first public reading of the U.S. Declaration of Independence to a crowd at Independence Square in Philadelphia.

1794 - French troops captured Brussels, Belgium.

1795 - Kent County Free School changed its name to Washington College. It was the first college to be named after U.S. President George Washington. The school was established by an act of the Maryland Assembly in 1723.

1815 - Louis XVIII returned to Paris after the defeat of Napoleon.

1865 - C.E. Barnes patented the machine gun.

1879 - The first ship to use electric lights departed from San Francisco, CA.

1881 - Edward Berner, druggist in Two Rivers, WI, poured chocolate syrup on ice cream in a dish. To this time chocolate syrup had only been used for making ice-cream sodas.

1889 - The Wall Street Journal was first published.

1889 - John L. Sullivan defeated Jake Kilrain, in the last championship bare-knuckle fight. The fight lasted 75 rounds.

1907 - Florenz Ziegfeld staged his first "Follies" on the roof of the New York Theater in New York City.

1919 - U.S. President Wilson returned from the Versailles Peace Conference in France.

1947 - Demolition work began in New York City for the new permanent headquarters of the United Nations.

1950 - General Douglas MacArthur was named commander-in-chief of United Nations forces in Korea.

1953 - Notre Dame announced that the next five years of its football games would be shown in theatres over closed circuit TV.

1960 - The Soviet Union charged Gary Powers with espionage. He was shot down in a U-2 spy plane.

1963 - All Cuban-owned assets in the United States were frozen.

1969 - The U.S. Patent Office issued a patent for the game "Twister."

1970 - The San Francisco Giant’s Jim Ray Hart became the first National League player in 59 seasons to collect six runs batted (RBI) during a single inning.

1981 - The Solar Challenger became the frist solar-powered airplane to cross the English Channel.

1986 - Kurt Waldheim was inaugurated as president of Austria despite controversy over his alleged ties to Nazi war crimes.

1997 - The Mayo Clinic and the U.S. government warned that the diet-drug combination known as "fen-phen" could cause serious heart and lung damage.

1997 - NATO invited Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic to join the alliance in 1999.

2000 - J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" was released in the U.S. It was the fourth Harry Potter book.

2010 - The Solar Impulse completed the first 24-hour flight by a solar powered plane.

[Raistlin]

0118 - Hadrian, Rome's new emperor, made his entry into the city.

0455 - Avitus, the Roman military commander in Gaul, became Emperor of the West.

1540 - England's King Henry VIII had his 6-month-old marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, annulled.

1609 - In a letter to the crown, the emperor Rudolf II granted Bohemia freedom of worship.

1755 - General Edward Braddock was mortally wounded when French and Indian troops ambushed his force of British regulars and colonial militia. He died on July 13.

1776 - The American Declaration of Independence was read aloud to Gen. George Washington's troops in New York.

1789 - In Versailles, the French National Assembly declared itself the Constituent Assembly and began to prepare a French constitution.

1790 - The Swedish navy captured one third of the Russian fleet at the naval battle of Svensksund in the Baltic Sea.

1792 - S.L. Mitchell of Columbia College in New York City became the first Professor of Agriculture.

1808 - The leather-splitting machine was patented by Samuel Parker.

1816 - Argentina declared independence from Spain.

1847 - A 10-hour work day was established for workers in the state of New Hampshire.

1868 - The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The amendment was designed to grant citizenship to and protect the civil liberties of recently freed slaves. It did this by prohibiting states from denying or abridging the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, depriving any person of his life, liberty, or property without due process of law, or denying to any person within their jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

1872 - The doughnut cutter was patented by John F. Blondel.

1877 - Alexander Graham Bell, Gardiner Greene Hubbard, Thomas Sanders and Thomas Watson formed the Bell Telephone Company.

1878 - The corncob pipe was patented by Henry Tibbe.

1900 - The Commonwealth of Australia was established by an act of the British Parliament, uniting the separate colonies under a federal government.

1922 - Johnny Weissmuller became the first person to swim the 100 meters freestyle in less than a minute.

1935 - Norman Bright ran the two mile event in the record time of 9 minutes, 13.2 seconds at a meet in New York City.

1943 - American and British forces made an amphibious landing on Sicily.

1947 - The engagement of Britain's Princess Elizabeth to Lt. Philip Mountbatten was announced.

1951 - U.S. President Truman asked Congress to formally end the state of war between the United States and Germany.

1953 - New York Airways began the first commuter passenger service by helicopter.

1968 - The first All-Star baseball game to be played indoors took place at the Astrodome in Houston, TX.

1971 - The United States turned over complete responsibility of the Demilitarized Zone to South Vietnamese units.

1985 - Herschel Walker of the New Jersey Generals was named the Most Valuable Player in the United States Football League (USFL).

1985 - Joe Namath signed a five-year pact with ABC-TV to provide commentary for "Monday Night Football".

1997 - Mike Tyson was banned from the boxing ring and fined $3 million for biting the ear of opponent Evander Holyfield.

2005 - Danny Way, a daredevil skateboarder, rolled down a large ramp and jumped across the Great Wall of China. He was the first person to clear the wall without motorized aid.

[Raistlin]

1609 - The Catholic states in Germany set up a league under the leadership of Maximillian of Bavaria.

1679 - The British crown claimed New Hampshire as a royal colony.

1776 - The statue of King George III was pulled down in New York City.

1778 - In support of the American Revolution, Louis XVI declared war on England.

1821 - U.S. troops took possession of Florida. The territory was sold by Spain.

1832 - U.S. President Andrew Jackson vetoed legislation to re-charter the Second Bank of the United States.

1866 - Edison P. Clark patented his indelible pencil.

1890 - Wyoming became the 44th state to join the United States.

1900 - ‘His Master’s Voice’, was registered with the U.S. Patent Office. The logo of the Victor Recording Company, and later, RCA Victor, shows the dog, Nipper, looking into the horn of a gramophone machine.

1910 - W.R. Brookins became the first to fly an airplane at an altitude of one mile.

1913 - The highest temperature ever recorded in the U.S. was 134 degrees in Death Valley, CA.

1919 - The Treaty of Versailles was hand delivered to the U.S. Senate by President Wilson.

1925 - The official news agency of the Soviet Union, TASS, was established.

1928 - George Eastman first demonstrated color motion pictures.

1929 - The U.S. government began issuing paper money in the small size.

1938 - Howard Hughes completed a 91 hour flight around the world.

1940 - The 114-day Battle of Britain began during World War II.

1949 - The first practical rectangular television was presented. The picture tube measured 12 by 16 and sold for $12.

1951 - Armistice talks aimed at ending the Korean conflict began at Kaesong.

1951 - Sugar Ray Robinson was defeated for only the second time in 133 fights as Randy Turpin took the middleweight crown.

1953 - American forces withdraw from Pork Chop Hill in Korea after heavy fighting.

1962 - The Telstar Communications satellite was launched. The satellite relayed TV and telephone signals between Europe and the U.S.

1962 - Fred Baldasare swam the English Channel underwater. It was a 42 miles and took 18 hours.

1969 - The National League was divided up into two baseball divisions.

1973 - Britain granted the Bahamas their independence after three centuries of British colonial rule.

1984 - Dwight ‘Doc’ Gooden, of the New York Mets, became the youngest player to appear in an All-Star Game as a pitcher. He was 19 years, 7 months, and 24 days old.

1985 - Coca-Cola resumed selling the old formula of Coke, it was renamed "Coca-Cola Classic." It was also announced that they would continue to sell "New" Coke.

1990 - Mikhail Gorbachev won re-election as the leader of the Soviet Communist Party.

1991 - Boris Yeltsin took the oath of office as the first elected president of the Russian republic.

1991 - U.S. President Bush lifted economic sanctions against South Africa, citing its "profound transformation" toward racial equality.

1993 - Kenyan runner Yobes Ondieki became the first man to run 10,000 meters in less than 27 minutes.

1997 - Scientists in London said DNA from a Neanderthal skeleton supported a theory that all humanity descended from an "African Eve" 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.

1998 - The World Bank approved a $700 million loan to Thailand.

1998 - The U.S. military delivered the remains of Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Blassie to his family in St. Louis. He had been placed in Arlington Cemetery's Tomb of the Unknown in 1984. His identity had been confirmed with DNA tests.

1999 - The heads of six African nations that had troops in the Democratic Republic of the Congo signed a cease-fire agreement that would end the civil war in that nation.

2002 - Peter Paul Rubens' painting "The Massacre of the Innocents" sold for $76.2 million at Sotheby's.

[Raistlin]

1346 - Charles IV of Luxembourg was elected Holy Roman Emperor in Germany.

1533 - Henry VIII, who divorced his wife and became head of the church of England, was excommunicated from the Catholic Church by Pope Clement VII.

1708 - The French were defeated at Oudenarde, Malplaquet, in the Netherlands by the Duke of Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy.

1742 - A papal decree was issued condemning the disciplining actions of the Jesuits in China.

1786 - Morocco agreed to stop attacking American ships in the Mediterranean for a payment of $10,000.

1798 - The U.S. Marine Corps was formally re-established by "An Act for Establishing a Marine Corps" passed by the U.S. Congress. The act also created the U.S. Marine Band. The Marines were first commissioned by the Continental Congress on November 10, 1775.

1804 - The United States' first secretary of the treasury, Alexander Hamilton, was killed by Vice President Aaron Burr in a duel.

1864 - In the U.S., Confederate forces led by Gen. Jubal Early began an invasion of Washington, DC. They turned back the next day.

1914 - Babe Ruth debuted in the major leagues with the Boston Red Sox.

1918 - Enrico Caruso recorded "Over There" written by George M. Cohan.

1934 - The first appointments to the newly created Federal Communications Commission were made.

1934 - U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt became the first American chief executive to travel through the Panama Canal while in office.

1955 - The U.S. Air Force Academy was dedicated in Colorado at Lowry Air Base.

1960 - In Honolulu, HI, the first tournament held outside the Continental U.S., sanctioned by the U.S. Golf Association, began.

1962 - The first transatlantic TV transmission was sent through the Telstar I satellite.

1972 - U.S. forces broke the 95-day siege at An Loc in Vietnam.

1977 - The Medal of Freedom was awarded posthumously to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in a White House ceremony.

1979 - The abandoned U.S. space station Skylab returned to Earth. It burned up in the atmosphere and showered debris over the Indian Ocean and Australia.

1985 - Dr. H. Harlan Stone announced that he had used zippers for stitches on 28 patients. The zippers were used when he thought he may have to re-operate.

1985 - Nolan Ryan (Houston Astros) became the first major league pitcher to earn 4,000 strikeouts in a career. (Texas)

1987 - Bo Jackson signed a contract to play football for the L.A. Raiders for 5 years. He was also continued to play baseball for the Kansas City Royals. (California)

1995 - Full diplomatic relations were established between the United States and Vietnam.

1998 - U.S. Air Force Lt. Michael Blassie, a casualty of the Vietnam War, was laid to rest near his Missouri home. He had been positively identified from his remains that had been enshrined in the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington, VA.

1999 - A U.S. Air Force jet flew over the Antarctic and dropped off emergency medical supplies for Dr. Jerri Nelson after she had discovered a lump in her breast. Nelso was at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Research Center.

2000 - The video "Jaws," the Anniversary Collector's Edition, was released.

2000 - Liam Neeson broke his pelvis after hitting a deer with his Harley Davidson motorcycle.

[Raistlin]

1096 - Crusaders under Peter the Hermit reached Sofia, Bulgaria. There they met their Byzantine escort, which brought them safely the rest of the way to Constantinople. by August 1.

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 - Manufacturing began for the Etch A Sketch®.

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.)

2000 - The movie "X-Men" premiered in New York.

[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.

2000 - Sprint Corp. and WorldCom canceled their planned merger due to opposition by regulators in the United States and Europe

[Raistlin]

1223 - In France, Louis VIII succeeded his father, Philip Augustus.

1430 - Joan of Arc, taken prisoner by the Burgundians in May, was handed over to Pierre Cauchon, the bishop of Beauvais.

1456 - Hungarians defeated the Ottomans at the Battle of Belgrade.

1536 - France and Portugal signed the naval treaty of Lyons, which aligned them against Spain.

1789 - French Revolution began with Parisians stormed the Bastille prison and released the seven prisoners inside.

1798 - The U.S. Congress passed the Sedition Act. The act made it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the U.S. government.

1868 - Alvin J. Fellows patented the tape measure.

1891 - The primacy of Thomas Edison's lamp patents was upheld in the court decision Electric Light Company vs. U.S. Electric Lighting Company.

1900 - European Allies retook Tientsin, China, from the rebelling Boxers.

1908 - "The Adventures of Dolly" opened at the Union Square Theatre in New York City.

1911 - Harry N. Atwood landed an airplane on the lawn of the White House to accept an award from U.S. President William Taft.

1914 - Robert H. Goddard patented liquid rocket-fuel.

1933 - All German political parties except the Nazi Party were outlawed.

1940 - A force of German Ju-88 bombers attacked Suez, Egypt, from bases in Crete.

1941 - Vichy French Foreign Legionaries signed an armistice in Damascus, which allowed them to join the Free French Foreign Legion.

1945 - American battleships and cruisers bombarded the Japanese home islands for the first time.

1946 - Dr. Benjamin Spock’s "The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care" was first published.

1951 - The first sports event to be shown in color, on CBS-TV, was the Molly Pitcher Handicap at Oceanport, NJ.

1951 - The George Washington Carver National Monument in Joplin, MO, became the first national park to honor an African American.

1958 - The army of Iraq overthrew the monarchy.

1965 - The American space probe Mariner 4 flew by Mars, and sent back photographs of the planet.

1967 - Eddie Mathews (Houston Astros) hit his 500th career home run.

1968 - Hank Aaron (Atlanta Braves) hit his 500th career home run.

1981 - The All-Star Game was postponed because of a 33-day-old baseball players strike. The game was held on August 9.

1998 - Los Angeles sued 15 tobacco companies for $2.5 billion over the dangers of secondhand smoke.

2001 - Beijing was awarded the 2008 Olympics. It was the first time that the China had been awarded the games.

2003 - Jerry Springer officially filed papers to run for the U.S. Senate from Ohio.

[Raistlin]

1099 - Jerusalem fell to the Crusaders.

1410 - Poles and Lithuanians defeated the Teutonic knights at Tannenburg, Prussia.

1789 - The electors of Paris set up a "Commune" to live without the authority of the government.

1806 - Lieutenant Zebulon Pike began his western expedition from Fort Belle Fountaine, near St. Louis, MO.

1813 - Napoleon Bonaparte's representatives met with the Allies in Prague to discuss peace terms.

1834 - Lord Napier of England arrived in Macao, China as the first chief superintendent of trade.

1870 - Georgia became the last of the Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union.

1876 - George Washington Bradley of St. Louis pitched the first no-hitter in baseball in a 2-0 win over Hartford.

1885 - In New York, the Niagara Reservation State Park opened.

1888 - "Printers’ Ink" was first sold.

1895 - Ex-prime minister of Bulgaria, Stephen Stambulov, was murdered by Macedonian rebels.

1901 - Over 74,000 Pittsburgh steel workers went on strike.

1904 - The first Buddhist temple in the U.S. was established in Los Angeles, CA.

1916 - In Seattle, WA, Pacific Aero Products was incorporated by William Boeing. The company was later renamed Boeing Co.

1918 - The Second Battle of the Marne began during World War I.

1922 - The duck-billed platypus arrived in America, direct from Australia. It was exhibited at the Bronx Zoo in New York City.

1942 - The first supply flight from India to China over the 'Hump' was carried to help China's war effort.

1958 - Five thousand U.S. Marines landed in Beirut, Lebanon, to protect the pro-Western government. The troops withdrew October 25, 1958.

1965 - The spacecraft Mariner IV sent back the first close-up pictures of the planet Mars.

1968 - ABC-TV premiered "One Life to Live".

1968 - Commercial air travel began between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., when the first plane, a Soviet Aeroflot jet, landed at Kennedy International Airport in New York.

1971 - U.S. President Nixon announced he would visit the People's Republic of China to seek a "normalization of relations."

1973 - Nolan Ryan (California Angels) became the first pitcher in two decades to win two no-hitters in a season. (California)

1981 - Steven Ford, son of former President Gerald R. Ford, appeared in a seduction scene of "The Young and the Restless" on CBS-TV. Ford played the part of Andy.

1985 - Baseball players voted to strike on August 6th if no contract was reached with baseball owners. The strike turned out to be just a one-day interruption.

1987 - Taiwan ended thirty-seven years of martial law.

2009 - "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" was released in theaters in the U.S. It was the sixth movie in the series.

[Raistlin]

1765 - Prime Minister of England Lord Greenville resigned and was replaced by Lord Rockingham.

1774 - Russia and the Ottoman Empire signed the treaty of Kuchuk-Kainardji, ending their six-year war.

1779 - American troops under General Anthony Wayne captured Stony Point, NY.

1790 - The District of Columbia, or Washington, DC, was established as the permanent seat of the United States Government.

1791 - Louis XVI was suspended from office until he agreed to ratify the constitution.

1845 - The New York Yacht Club hosted the first American boating regatta.

1862 - David G. Farragut became the first rear admiral in the U.S. Navy.

1875 - The new French constitution was finalized.

1912 - Bradley A. Fiske patented the airplane torpedo.

1926 - The first underwater color photographs appeared in "National Geographic" magazine. The pictures had been taken near the Florida Keys.

1935 - Oklahoma City became the first city in the U.S. to install parking meters.

1940 - Adolf Hitler ordered the preparations to begin on the invasion of England, known as Operation Sea Lion.

1942 - French police officers rounded up 13,000 Jews and held them in the Winter Velodrome. The round-up was part of an agreement between Pierre Laval and the Nazis. Germany had agreed to not deport French Jews if France arrested foreign Jews.

1944 - Soviet troops occupied Vilna, Lithuania, in their drive toward Germany.

1945 - The United States detonated the first atomic bomb in a test at Alamogordo, NM.

1950 - The largest crowd in sporting history was 199,854. They watched the Uruguay defeat Brazil in the World Cup soccer finals in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

1951 - J.D. Salinger's novel "The Catcher in the Rye" was first published.

1957 - Marine Major John Glenn set a transcontinental speed record when he flew a jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8 seconds.

1964 - Little League Baseball Incorporated was granted a Federal Charter unanimously by the United States Senate and House of Representatives.

1969 - Apollo 11 blasted off from Cape Kennedy, FL, and began the first manned mission to land on the moon.

1970 - The Pittsburgh Pirates played their first game at Three Rivers Stadium.

1973 - Alexander P. Butterfield informed the Senate committee investigating the Watergate affair of the existence of recorded tapes.

1979 - Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq after forcing Hasan al-Bakr to resign.

1981 - After 23 years with the name Datsun, executives of Nissan changed the name of their cars to Nissan.

1985 - The All-Star Game, televised on NBC-TV, was the first program broadcast in stereo by a TV network.

2005 - J.K. Rowling's book "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" was released. It was the sixth in the Harry Potter series. The book sold 6.9 million copies on its first day of release.

[Raistlin]

1212 - The Moslems were crushed in the Spanish crusade.

1453 - France defeated England at Castillon, France, which ended the 100 Years' War.

1785 - France limited the importation of goods from Britain.

1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte surrendered to the British at Rochefort, France.

1821 - Spain ceded Florida to the U.S.

1862 - National cemeteries were authorized by the U.S. government.

1866 - Authorization was given to build a tunnel beneath the Chicago River. The three-year project cost $512,709.

1867 - Harvard School of Dental Medicine was established in Boston, MA. It was the first dental school in the U.S.

1898 - U.S. troops under General William R. Shafter took Santiago de Cuba during the Spanish-American War.

1917 - The British royal family adopted the Windsor name.

1920 - Sinclair Lewis finished his novel "Main Street."

1941 - The longest hitting streak in baseball history ended when the Cleveland Indians pitchers held New York Yankee Joe DiMaggio hitless for the first time in 57 games.

1941 - Brigadier General Soervell directed Architect G. Edwin Bergstrom to have basic plans and architectural perspectives for an office building that could house 40,000 War Department employees on his desk by the following Monday morning. The building became known as the Pentagon.

1945 - U.S. President Truman, Soviet leader Josef Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill began meeting at Potsdam in the final Allied summit of World War II. During the meeting Stalin made the comment that "Hitler had escaped."

1946 - Chinese communists opened a drive against the Nationalist army on the Yangtze River.

1950 - The television show "The Colgate Comedy Hour" debuted featuring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

1954 - The Brooklyn Dodgers made history as the first team with a majority of black players.

1955 - Disneyland opened in Anaheim, CA.

1960 - Francis Gary Powers pled guilty to spying charges in a Moscow court after his U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union.

1966 - Ho Chi Minh ordered a partial mobilization of North Vietnam forces to defend against American air strikes.

1975 - An Apollo spaceship docked with a Soyuz spacecraft in orbit. It was the first link up between the U.S. and Soviet Union.

1979 - Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza resigned and fled to Miami in exile. (Florida)

1986 - The largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history took place when LTV Corporation asked for court protection from more than 20,000 creditors. LTV Corp. had debts in excess of $4 billion.

1987 - Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and rear Admiral John Poindexter begin testifying to Congress at the "Iran-Contra" hearings.

1995 - The Nasdaq composite stock index rose above 1,000 for the first time.

1997 - After 117 years, the Woolworth Corp. closed its last 400 stores.

1998 - Biologists reported that they had deciphered the genome (genetic map) of the syphilis bacterium.

[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. (Maryland)

[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]

1801 - A 1,235 pound cheese ball was pressed at the farm of Elisha Brown, Jr. The ball of cheese was later loaded on a horse-driven wagon and presented to U.S. President Thomas Jefferson at the White House.

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.

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 - Captain 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]

1376 - The legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin leading rats out of town is said to have occurred on this date.

1587 - A second English colony was established on Roanoke Island off North Carolina. The colony vanished under mysterious circumstances.

1796 - Cleveland was founded by General Moses Cleaveland.

1798 - The USS Constitution was underway and out to sea for the first time since being launched on October 21, 1797.

1812 - English troops under the Duke of Wellington defeated the French at the Battle of Salamanca in Spain.

1926 - Babe Ruth caught a baseball at Mitchell Field in New York. The ball had been dropped from an airplane flying at 250 feet.

1933 - Wiley Post ended his around-the-world flight. He had traveled 15,596 miles in 7 days, 18 hours and 45 minutes.

1937 - The U.S. Senate rejected President Roosevelt's proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court.

1943 - American forces led by General George S. Patton captured Palermo, Sicily.

1941 - Plans for the Pentagon were presented to the House Subcommittee on Appropriations.

1955 - U.S. Vice-President Richard M. Nixon chaired a cabinet meeting in Washington, DC. It was the first time that a Vice-President had carried out the task.

1965 - "Till Death Us Do Part" debuted on Englands BBC-TV.

1975 - Confederate General Robert E. Lee had his U.S. citizenship restored by the U.S. Congress.

1987 - The U.S. began its policy of escorting re-flagged Kuwaiti tankers up and down the Persian Gulf to protect them from possible attack by Iran.

1998 - Iran tested medium-range missile, capable of reaching Israel or Saudi Arabia.

2000 - Astronomers at the University of Arizona announced that they had found a 17th moon orbiting Jupiter.

2003 - In northern Iraq, Saddam Hussein's sons Odai and Qusai died after a gunfight with U.S. forces.

2003 - In Paris, France, a fire broke out near the top of the Eiffel Tower. About 4,000 visitors were evacuated and no injuries were reported.

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

2009 - The longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century, lasting up to 6 minutes and 38.8 seconds, occurred over parts of Asia and the Pacific Ocean.

2011 - Space Shuttle Atlantis landed successfully at Kennedy Space Center after completing STS-135.

[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.

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

[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.

Disney movies, music and books

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.

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 landed on "Isla Santa" (Venezuela).

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.

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 St. Louis 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.