On This Day

September 15, 2015

1775 - An early and unofficial American flag was raised by Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Mott after the seizing of Fort Johnson from the British. The flag was dark blue with the white word "Liberty" spelled on it.

1776 - British forces occupied New York City during the American Revolution.

1789 - The U.S. Department of Foreign Affairs was renamed the Department of State.

1821 - Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador proclaimed independence.

1853 - Reverend Antoinette Brown Blackwell was ordained becoming first female minister in the United States.

1857 - Timothy Alder earned a patent for the typesetting machine.

1858 - The first mail service begins to the Pacific Coast of the U.S. under government contract. Coaches from the Butterfield Overland Mail Company took 12 days to make the journey between Tipton, MO and San Francisco, CA.

1883 - The University of Texas at Austin opened.

1909 - A New York judge rule that Ford Motor Company had infringed on George Seldon's patent for the "Road Engine." The ruling was later overturned.

1909 - Charles F. Kettering applied for a patent on his ignition system. His company Delco (Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company) later became a subsidiary of General Motors.

1916 - During the Battle of the Somme, in France, tanks were first used in warfare when the British rolled them onto the battlefields.

1917 - Alexander Kerensky proclaimed Russia to be a republic.

1923 - Oklahoma was placed under martial law by Gov. John Calloway Walton due to terrorist activity by the Ku Klux Klan. After this declaration national newspapers began to expose the Klan and its criminal activities.

1928 - Alexander Fleming discovered the antibiotic penicillin in the mold Penicillium notatum.

1935 - The Nuremberg Laws were enacted by Nazi Germany. The act stripped all German Jews of their civil rights and the swastika was made the official symbol of Nazi Germany.

1940 - The German Luftwaffe suffered the loss of 185 planes in the Battle of Britain. The change in tide forced Hitler to abandon his plans for invading Britain.

1949 - "The Lone Ranger" premiered on ABC. Clayton Moore was the Lone Ranger and Jay Silverheels was Tonto.

1950 - U.N. forces landed at Inchon, Korea in an attempt to relieve South Korean forces and recapture Seoul.

1953 - The National Boxing Association adopted the 10-point scoring system for all of its matches.

1955 - Betty Robbins became the first woman cantor.

1959 - Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev arrived in the U.S. to begin a 13-day visit.

1961 - The U.S. resumed underground testing of nuclear weapons.

1965 - "Lost in Space" premiered on CBS TV.

1965 - "Green Acres" premiered on CBS TV.

1971 - Greenpeace was founded.

1978 - Muhammad Ali defeated Leon Spinks to win his 3rd World Heavyweight Boxing title.

1982 - The first issue of "USA Today" was published.

1983 - The U.S. Senate joined the U.S. House of Representatives in their condemning of the Soviet Union for shooting down a Korean jet with 269 people onboard.

1990 - France announced that it would send an additional 4,000 soldiers to the Persian Gulf. They also expelled Iraqi military attaches in Paris.

1993 - The FBI announced a new national campaign concerning the crime of carjacking.

1994 - U.S. President Clinton told Haiti's military leaders "Your time is up. Leave now or we will force you from power."

1995 - The U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women was held in Beijing.

1997 - The domain name "google.com" was registered.

1998 - Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered the Iranian military to be on full alert and massed troops on its border with Afghanistan.

1998 - It was announced that 5.9 million people read The Starr Report on the Internet. 606,000 people read the White House defense of U.S. President Clinton.

1999 - The United Nations approved the deployment of a multinational peacekeeping force in East Timor.

2003 - In Independence, MO, the birthplace of Ginger Rogers was designated a local landmark. The move by the Independence City Council qualified the home for historic preservation.

2012 - Legoland Malaysia opened in Nusajaya, Johor, Malaysia.

September 15, 2015

1400 - Owain Glyndwr was proclaimed Prince of Wales after rebelling against English rule. He was the last Welsh-born Prince of Wales.

1620 - The Mayflower departed from Plymouth, England. The ship arrived at Provincetown, MA, on November 21st and then at Plymouth, MA, on December 26th. There were 102 passengers onboard.

1630 - The village of Shawmut changed its name to Boston.

1782 - The Great Seal of the United States was impressed on document to negotiate a prisoner of war agreement with the British. It was the first official use of the impression.

1810 - The Mexicans began a revolt against Spanish rule. Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a Catholic priest of Spanish descent, declared Mexico's independence from Spain in the small town of Dolores.

1893 - The "Cherokee Strip" in Oklahoma was swarmed by hundreds of thousands of settlers.

1908 - General Motors was founded by William Crapo "Billy" Durant. The company was formed by merging the Buick and Olds car companies.

1924 - Jim Bottomley knocked in 12 runs in a single game setting a major league baseball record.

1940 - U.S. President Roosevelt signed into law the Selective Training and Service Act, which set up the first peacetime military draft in U.S. history.

1940 - Samuel T. Rayburn of Texas was elected Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. He served for 17 years.

1941 - "The Arkansas Traveler" debuted on CBS Radio. The show was later renamed "The Bob Burns Show."

1953 - "The Robe" premiered at the Roxy Theater in New York. It was the first movie filmed in the wide screen CinemaScope process.

1953 - The St. Louis Browns of the American League were given permission to move to Baltimore, MD, where they became the Baltimore Orioles.

1963 - "The Outer Limits" premiered on ABC-TV.

1965 - "The Dean Martin Show" debuted on NBC-TV.

1968 - "The Andy Griffith Show" was seen for the final time on CBS.

1972 - "The Bob Newhart Show" premiered on CBS-TV.

1974 - U.S. President Ford announced a conditional amnesty program for draft-evaders and deserters during the Vietnam War.

1976 - The Episcopal Church formally approved women to be ordained as priests and bishops.

1982 - In west Beirut, the massacre of hundreds of Palestinian men, women and children began in refugee camps of the Lebanese Christian militiamen.

1985 - The Communist Party in China announced changes in leadership that were designed to bring younger officials into power.

1987 - The Montreal Protocol was signed by 24 countries in an effort to save the Earth's ozone layer by reducing emissions of harmful chemicals by the year 2000.

1988 - Tom Browning pitched the 12th perfect game in major league baseball.

1990 - An eight-minute videotape of an address by U.S. President George H.W. Bush was shown on Iraqi television. The message warned that action of Saddam Hussein could plunge them into a war "against the world."

1994 - Exxon Corporation was ordered by federal jury to pay $5 billion in punitive damages to the people harmed by the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill.

1994 - Two astronauts from the space shuttle Discovery went on the first untethered spacewalk in 10 years.

1998 - Universal paid $9 million for the rights to the Dr. Seuss classics "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "Oh, the Places You'll Go."

1998 - Meryl Streep received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

September 17, 2015

1394 - In France, Charles VI published an ordinance that expelled all Jews from France.

1778 - The United States signed its first treaty with a Native American tribe, the Delaware Nation.

1787 - The Constitution of the United States of America was signed by delegates at the Constitutional Convention.

1796 - U.S. President George Washington's Farewell Address was read before the U.S. Congress.

1862 - The Battle of Antietam took place during the American Civil War. More than 23,000 men were killed, wounded, or missing. The Rebel advance was ended with heavy losses to both armies.

1872 - Phillip W. Pratt patented a version of the sprinkler system.

1911 - The first transcontinental airplane flight started. It took C.P. Rogers 82 hours to fly from New York City to Pasadena, CA.

1920 - The American Professional Football Association was formed in Canton, OH. It was the precursor to the National Football League (NFL).

1930 - Construction on Boulder Dam, later renamed Hoover Dam, began in Black Canyon, near Las Vegas, NV.

1932 - Sir Malcolm Campbell set a speed record when he reached 276.27 mph over a half mile.

1937 - At Mount Rushmore, Abraham Lincoln's face was dedicated.

1939 - The Soviet Union invaded Poland. Germany had invaded Poland on September 1.

1944 - Operation "Market Garden" was launched by Allied paratroopers during World War II. The landing point was behind German lines in the Netherlands.

1947 - The first U.S. Secretary of Defense, James V. Forrestal, was sworn in to office.

1953 - Ernie Banks became the first black baseball player to wear a Chicago Cubs uniform. He retired in 1971 known as 'Mr. Cub'.

1953 - The Ochsner Foundation Hospital in New Orleans, LA, successfully separated Siamese twins. Carolyn Anne and Catherine Anne Mouton were connected at the waist when born.

1955 - "The Perry Como Show" moved to Saturday nights on NBC-TV.

1961 - The Minnesota Vikings were debuted as the new National Football League (NFL) team.

1962 - U.S. space officials announced the selection of Neil A. Armstrong and eight others as new astronauts.

1963 - "The Fugitive" premiered on ABC-TV. The show starred David Janssen.

1964 - "Bewitched" premiered on ABC-TV.

1965 - "Hogan's Heroes" debuted on CBS-TV.

1966 - "Mission Impossible" premiered on CBS-TV.

1972 - "M*A*S*H" premiered on CBS-TV.

1976 - NASA unveiled the space shuttle Enterprise in Palmdale, CA.

1983 - Vanessa Williams, as Miss New York, became the first black woman to be crowned Miss America.

1983 - Johnny Bench (Cincinnati Reds) retired after 16 years as a catcher.

1983 - Carl Yastrzemski (Boston Red Sox) broke Hank Aaron's major league record for games played when he started his 3,299th game. (MLB)

1984 - 9,706 immigrants became naturalized citizens when they were sworn in by U.S. Vice-President George Bush in Miami, FL. It was the largest group to become U.S. citizens.

1984 - Gordon P. Getty was named the richest person in the U.S. His fortune was $4.1 billion.

1984 - Reggie Jackson hit his 500th career home run. It was exactly 17 years from the day he hit his first major league home run.

1988 - Lt. Gen. Prosper Avril declared himself president of Haiti after President Henri Hamphy was ousted.

1991 - The United Nations General Assembly opened its 46th session. The new members were Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, North and South Korea, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands.

1992 - Lawrence Walsh called a halt to his probe of the Iran-Contra scandal. The investigation had lasted 5 1/2 years.

1995 - Hong Kong held its last legislative election before being taken over by China in 1997.

1997 - Northern Ireland's main Protestant party joined in peace talks. It was the first time that all of the major players had come together.

1998 - The United States government offered a reward for the capture of Haroun Fazil for his role in the U.S. bombing in Kenya on August 7, 1998.

1998 - The U.S. announced a plan that would compensate victims in the Kenya and Tanzania U.S. Embassy bombings on August 7, 1998.

2014 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at an all time high of 17,156.

September 18, 2015

1709 - The creator of the first dictionary of the English language, Samuel Johnson, was born in England.

1759 - The French formally surrendered Quebec to the British.

1769 - It was reported, by the Boston Gazette, that the first piano had been built in North America. The instrument was named the spinet and was made by John Harris.

1789 - Alexander Hamilton negotiated and secured the first loan for the United States. The Temporary Loan of 1789 was repaid on June 8, 1790 at the sum of $191,608.81.

1793 - U.S. President George Washington laid the actual cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol.

1810 - Chile declared its independence from Spain.

1830 - The "Tom Thumb", the first locomotive built in America, raced a horse on a nine-mile course. The horse won when the locomotive had some mechanical difficulties.

1837 - Tiffany & Co. was founeded in New York City.

1850 - The Fugitive Slave Act was declared by the U.S. Congress. The act allowed slave owners to claim slaves that had escaped into other states.

1851 - The first issue of "The New York Times" was published.

1891 - Harriet Maxwell Converse became the first white woman to ever be named chief of an Indian tribe. The tribe was the Six Nations Tribe at Towanda Reservation in New York.

1895 - Daniel David Palmer gave the first chiropractic adjustment.

1927 - Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System made its debut with its network broadcast over 16 radio stations. The name was later changed to CBS.

1940 - "You Can't Go Home Again" by Thomas Wolfe was published by Harper and Brothers.

1946 - Mound Metalcraft was founded in Mound, MN. On November 23, 1955, the company changed its name to Tonka Toys Incorporated.

1947 - The United States Air Force was established as a separate military branch by the National Security Act.

1955 - The "Ed Sullivan Show" began on CBS-TV. The show had been "The Toast of the Town" since 1948.

1963 - "The Patty Duke Show" premiered on ABC-TV.

1965 - The first episode of "I Dream of Jeannie" was shown on NBC-TV. The last show was televised on September 1, 1970.

1981 - A museum honoring former U.S. President Ford was dedicated in Grand Rapids, MI.

1984 - The 39th session of the U.N. General Assembly was opened with an appeal to the U.S. and Soviet Union to resume arms negotiations.

1991 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush said that he would send warplanes to escort U.N. helicopters that were searching for hidden Iraqi weapons if it became necessary.

1994 - Haiti's military leaders agreed to depart on October 15th. This action averted a U.S.-led invasion to force them out of power.

1997 - Ted Turner, U.S. Media magnate, announced that over the next ten years he would give $1 billion to the United Nations.

1998 - The U.S. House Judiciary Committee voted to release to videotape of President Clinton's grand jury testimony from August 17.

1998 - The FDA approved a once-a-day easier-to-swallow medication for AIDS patients.

2003 - Robert Duvall received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

September 19, 2015

1356 - The Battle of Poitiers was fought between England and France. Edward "the Black Prince" captured France's King John.

1777 - The Battle of Saratoga was won by American soldiers during the Revolutionary War.

1796 - U.S. President Washington's farewell address was published.

1819 - John Keats wrote "Ode to Autumn."

1876 - Melville R. Bissell patented the carpet sweeper.

1891 - "The Merchant of Venice" was performed for the first time at Manchester.

1893 - In New Zealand, the Electoral Act 1893 was consented to giving all women in New Zealand the right to vote.

1942 - The first advertisement to announce Little Golden Books appeared in Publishers Weekly.

1955 - Eva Marie Saint, Frank Sinatra and Paul Newman starred in the "Producer's Showcase" presentation of "Our Town" on NBC-TV.

1955 - Argentina President Juan Peron was ousted after a revolt by the army and navy.

1957 - The U.S. conducted its first underground nuclear test. The test took place in the Nevada desert.

1959 - Nikita Khruschev was not allowed to visit Disneyland due to security reasons. Khrushchev reacted angrily.

1960 - Cuban leader Fidel Castro, in New York to visit the United Nations, checked out of the Shelburne Hotel angrily after a dispute with the management.

1970 - "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" premiered on CBS-TV.

1982 - Scott Fahlman became the first person to use :-) in an online message.

1983 - Lebanese army units defending Souk el-Gharb were supported in their effort by two U.S. Navy ships off Beirut.

1984 - China and Britain completed a draft agreement transferring Hong Kong from British to Chinese rule by 1997.

1986 - U.S. health officials announced that AZT, though an experimental drug, would be made available to AIDS patients.

1988 - Israel successfully launched the Horizon-I test satellite.

1990 - Iraq began confiscating foreign assets of countries that were imposing sanctions against the Iraqi government.

1992 - The U.N. Security Council recommended suspending Yugoslavia due to its role in the Bosnian civil war.

1994 - U.S. troops entered Haiti peacefully to enforce the return of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

1995 - The U.S. Senate passed a welfare overhaul bill.

1995 - The commander of American forces in Japan and the U.S. ambassador apologized for the rape of a schoolgirl committed by three U.S. servicemen.

1996 - The government of Guatemala and leftist rebels signed a peace treaty to end their long war.

2002 - In Ivory Coast, around 750 rebel soldiers attempted to overthrow the government. U.S. troops landed on September 25th to help move foreigners, including Americans, to safer areas.

2003 - It was reported that AOL Time Warner was going to drop "AOL" from its name and be known as Time Warner Inc. The company had announced its merger and name change on January 10, 2000.

September 19, 2015

1519 - Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan left Spain to find a route to the Spice Islands of Indonesia. Magellan was killed during the trip, but one of his ships eventually made the journey.

1870 - The Papal States came under the control of Italian troops, leading to the unification of Italy.

1881 - Chester A. Arthur became the 21st president of the U.S. President James A. Garfield had died the day before.

1884 - The Equal Rights Party was formed in San Francisco, CA.

1921 - KDKA in Pittsburgh, PA, started a daily radio newscast. It was one of the first in the U.S.

1946 - The first Cannes Film Festival premiered. The original premier was delayed in 1939 due to World War II.

1946 - WNBT-TV in New York became the first station to promote a motion picture. Scenes from "The Jolson Story" were shown.

1953 - The TV show "Letter to Loretta" premiered. The name was changed to "The Loretta Young Show" on February 14, 1954.

1953 - Jimmy Stewart debuted on the radio western "The Six Shooter" on NBC.

1955 - "You'll Never Be Rich" premiered on CBS-TV. The name was changed less than two months later to "The Phil Silvers Show."

1962 - James Meredith, a black student, was blocked from enrolling at the University of Mississippi by Governor Ross R. Barnett. Meredith was later admitted.

1963 - U.S. President John F. Kennedy proposed a joint U.S.-Soviet expedition to the moon in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly.

1967 - The ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) was launched. It went out of service on November 27, 2008.

1977 - The first of the "boat people" arrived in San Francisco from Southeast Asia under a new U.S. resettlement program.

1982 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan announced that the U.S., France, and Italy were going to send peacekeeping troops back to Beirut.

1984 - "The Cosby Show" premiered on NBC-TV.

1988 - The United Nations opened it 43rd General Assembly.

1989 - F.W. de Klerk was sworn in as president of South Africa.

1991 - U.N. weapons inspectors left for Iraq in a renewed search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

1992 - French voters approved the Maastricht Treaty.

1995 - AT&T announced that it would be splitting into three companies. The three companies were AT&T, Lucent Technologies, and NCR Corp.

1995 - The U.S. House of Representatives voted to drop the national speed limit. This allowed the states to decide their own speed limits.

September 21, 2015

1792 - The French National Convention voted to abolish the monarchy.

1784 - "The Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser" was published for the first time in Philadelphia. It was the first daily paper in America.

1893 - Frank Duryea took what is believed to be the first gasoline- powered automobile for a test drive. The "horseless carriage" was designed by Frank and Charles Duryea.

1897 - The New York Sun ran the "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" editorial. It was in response to a letter from 8-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon.

1931 - Britain went off the gold standard.

1931 - Japanese forces began occupying China's northeast territory of Manchuria.

1937 - J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" was first published.

1941 - "The Second Mrs. Burton" premiered to the entire CBS Radio Network.

1948 - Milton Berle debuted as the host of "The Texaco Star Theater" on NBC-TV. The show later became "The Milton Berle Show." Berle was the regular host until 1967.

1948 - "Life With Luigi" debuted on CBS Radio.

1949 - Communist leaders proclaimed The People's Republic of China.

1957 - "Perry Mason", the television series, made its debut on CBS-TV. The show was on for 9 years.

1961 - Antonio Abertondo swam the English Channel (in both directions) in 24 hours and 25 minutes.

1964 - Malta gained independence from Britain.

1966 - The Soviet probe Zond 5 returned to Earth. The spacecraft completed the first unmanned round-trip flight to the moon.

1970 - "NFL Monday Night Football" made its debut on ABC-TV. The game was between the Cleveland Browns and the New York Jets. The Browns won 31-21.

1973 - Henry Kissinger was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to become 56th Secretary of State. He was the first naturalized citizen to hold the office of Secretary of State.

1981 - The U.S. Senate confirmed Sandra Day O'Connor to be the first female justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

1981 - Belize gained full independence from Great Britain.

1982 - National Football League (NFL) players began a 57-day strike. It was their first regular-season walkout.

1982 - Amin Gemayel was elected president of Lebanon. He was the brother of Bashir Gemayel who was the president-elect when he was assassinated.

1984 - General Motors and the United Auto Workers union reached an agreement that would end the previous six days of spot strikes.

1985 - North and South Korea opened their borders for their family reunion program.

1993 - Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin announced that he was ousting the Communist-dominated Congress. The action was effectively seizing all state power.

1996 - The board of all-male Virginia Military Institute voted to admit women.

1996 - John F. Kennedy Jr. married Carolyn Bessette in a secret ceremony on Cumberland Island, GA.

September 22, 2015

1789 - The U.S. Congress authorized the office of Postmaster General.

1792 - The French Republic was proclaimed.

1862 - U.S. President Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. It stated that all slaves held within rebel states would be free as of January 1, 1863.

1903 - Italo Marchiony was granted a patent for the ice cream cone.

1914 - Three British cruisers were sunk by one German submarine in the North Sea. 1,400 British sailors were killed. This event alerted the British to the effectiveness of the submarine.

1927 - In Chicago, IL, Gene Tunney successfully defended his heavyweight boxing title against jack Dempsey in the famous "long-count" fight.

1949 - The Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb successfully.

1955 - Commercial television began in Great Britain. The rules said that only six minutes of ads were allowed each hour and there was no Sunday morning TV permitted.

1961 - U.S. President John F. Kennedy signed a congressional act that established the Peace Corps.

1964 - "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." debuted on NBC-TV.

1966 - The U.S. lunar probe Surveyor 2 crashed into the moon.

1969 - Willie Mays hit his 600th career home run.

1980 - A border conflict between Iran and Iraq developed into a full-scale war.

1986 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan addressed the U.N. General Assembly and voiced a new hope for arms control. He also criticized the Soviet Union for arresting U.S. journalist Nicholas Daniloff.

1988 - Canada's government apologized for the internment of Japanese-Canadian's during World War II. They also promised compensation.

1990 - Saudi Arabia expelled most of the Yememin and Jordanian envoys in Riyadh. The Saudi accusations were unspecific.

1991 - An article in the London newspaper "The Mail" revealed that John Cairncross admitted to being the "fifth man" in the Soviet Union's British spy ring.

1992 - The U.N. General Assembly expelled Yugoslavia for its role in the war between Bosnia and Herzegovina.

1994 - The U.S. upgraded its military control in Haiti.

1998 - The U.S. and Russia signed two agreements. One was to privatize Russia's nuclear program and the other was to stop plutonium stockpiles and nuclear scientists from leaving the country.

1998 - U.S. President Clinton addressed the United Nations and told world leaders to "end all nuclear tests for all time". He then sent the long-delayed global test-ban treaty to the U.S. Senate.

1998 - Keely Smith received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

September 23, 2015

1642 - The first commencement at Harvard College, in Cambridge, MA, was held.

1779 - John Paul Jones, commander of the American warship Bon Homme, was quoted as saying "I have not yet begun to fight!"

1780 - John Andre, a British spy, was captured with papers revealing that Benedict Arnold was going to surrender West Point, NY, to the British.

1806 - The Corps of Discovery, the Lewis and Clark expedition, reached St. Louis, MO, and ended the trip to the Pacific Northwest.

1838 - Victoria Chaflin Woodhull was born. She became the first female candidate for the U.S. Presidency.

1845 - The Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York was formed by Alexander Joy Cartwright. It was the first baseball team in America.

1846 - Astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle discovered the planet Neptune.

1912 - "Keystone Comedy" by Mack Sennett was released.

1930 - Flashbulbs were patented by Johannes Ostermeier.

1951 - The first transcontinental telecast was received on the west coast. The show "Crusade for Freedom" was broadcast by CBS-TV from New York.

1952 - The first Pay Television sporting event took place. The Marciano-Walcott fight was seen in 49 theaters in 31 cities.

1952 - Richard Nixon gave his "Checkers Speech". At the time he was a candidate for U.S. vice-president.

1953 - "The Robe" premiered in Hollywood a week after its premiere in New York. The 20th Century Fox movie had been filmed using the Cinemascope wide screen process.

1957 - Nine black students withdrew from Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas due to the white mob outside.

1962 - New York's Philharmonic Hall opened. It was the first unit of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The hall was later renamed the Avery Fisher Hall.

1962 - "The Jetsons" premiered on ABC-TV. It was the first program on the network to be carried in color.

1964 - The new ceiling painting of the Paris Opera house was unveiled. The work was done by Russian-born artist Marc Chagall.

1973 - Overthrown Argentine president Juan Peron was returned to power. He had been overthrown in 1955. His wife, Eva Duarte, was the subject of the musical "Evita."

1981 - The Reagan administration announced its plans for what became known as Radio Marti.

1986 - Japanese newspapers quoted Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone as saying that minorities lowered the "intelligence level" of America.

1990 - Iraq publicly threatened to destroy Middle East oil fields and to attack Israel if any nation tried to force it from Kuwait.

1991 - U.N. weapons inspectors find documents detailing Iraq's secret nuclear weapons program. The find in Baghdad triggered a standoff with authorities in Iraq.

1993 - The Israeli parliament ratified the Israel-PLO accord.

1993 - Blacks were allowed a role in the South African government after a parliamentary vote.

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

1999 - A 17-month-old girl fell 230 feet from the Capilano Suspension Bridge in North Vancouver, British Columbia. The girl had bruises but no broken limbs from the fall onto a rocky ledge.

1999 - Siegfried & Roy received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

September 24, 2015

1869 - Thousands of businessmen were financially ruined after a panic on Wall Street. The panic was caused by an attempt to corner the gold market by Jay Gould and James Fisk.

1915 - "The Lamb," Douglas Fairbanks first film, was shown at the Knickerbocker Theater in New York City, NY.

1929 - The first all-instrument flight took place in New York when Lt. James H. Doolittle guided a Consolidated NY2 Biplane over Mitchell Field.

1933 - "Roses and Drums" was heard on WABC in New York City. It was the first dramatic presentation for radio.

1934 - Babe Ruth played his last game as a New York Yankee player.

1938 - Don Budge became the first tennis player to win all four of the major titles when he won the U.S. Tennis Open. He had already won the Australian Open, the French Open and the British Open.

1955 - U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower suffered a heart attack while on vacation in Denver, CO.

1957 - The Brooklyn Dodgers played their last game at Ebbets Field.

1957 - U.S. President Eisenhower sent federal troops to Little Rock, AR, to enforce school integration.

1960 - The first nuclear powered aircraft carrier was launched. The USS Enterprise set out from Newport News, VA.

1961 - "The Bullwinkle Show" premiered in prime time on NBC-TV. The show was originally on ABC in the afternoon as "Rocky and His Friends."

1963 - The U.S. Senate ratified a treaty that limited nuclear testing. The treaty was between the U.S., Britain, and the Soviet Union.

1968 - "60 Minutes" premiered on CBS-TV.

1968 - "The Mod Squad" premiered on ABC-TV.

1977 - "The Love Boat" debuted on ABC-TV. The theme song was sung by jack Jones and was written by Paul Williams and Charles Fox.

1995 - Three decades of Israeli occupation of West Bank cities ended with the signing of a pact by Israel and the PLO.

1996 - The United States, represented by President Clinton, and the world's other major nuclear powers signed a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty to end all testing and development of nuclear weapons.

1998 - The U.S. Federal Reserve released into circulation $2 billion in new harder-to-counterfeit $20 bills.

2001 - U.S. President George W. Bush froze the assets of 27 suspected terrorists and terrorist groups.

2003 - Anthony Hopkins received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

September 24, 2015

1492 - The crew of the Pinta, one of Christopher Columbus' ships, mistakenly thought that they had spotted land.

1493 - Christopher Columbus left Spain with 17 ships on his second voyage to the Western Hemisphere.

1513 - The Pacific Ocean was discovered by Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa when he crossed the Isthmus of Panama. He named the body of water the South Sea. He was truly just the first European to see the Pacific Ocean.

1690 - One of America's earliest newspapers published its first and last edition. The "Publik Occurences Both Foreign and Domestik" was published at the London Coffee House in Boston, MA, by Benjamin Harris.

1775 - Ethan Allen was captured by the British during the American Revolutionary War. He was leading the attack on Montreal.

1789 - The first U.S. Congress adopted 12 amendments to the Constitution. Ten of the amendments became the Bill of Rights.

1847 - During the Mexican-American War, U.S. forces led by General Zachary Taylor captured Monterrey Mexico.

1882 - The first major league double header was played. It was between the Worcester and Providence teams.

1890 - The Sequoia National Park was established as a U.S. National Park in Central California.

1890 - Mormon President Wilford Woodruff issued a Manifesto in which the practice of polygamy was renounced.

1919 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson collapsed after a speech in Pueblo, CO. The speaking tour was in support of the Treaty of Versailles.

1933 - Tom Mix was heard on NBC Radio for the first time. His show ran until June of 1950.

1956 - A transatlantic telephone-cable system began operation between Newfoundland and Scotland.

1957 - 300 U.S. Army troops stood guard as nine black students were escorted to class at Central High School in Little Rock, AR. The children had been forced to withdraw 2 days earlier because of unruly white mobs.

1965 - Willie Mays, at the age of 34, became the oldest man to hit 50 home runs in a single season. He had also set the record for the youngest to hit 50 ten years earlier.

1973 - The three crewmen of Skylab II landed in the Pacific Ocean after being on the U.S. space laboratory for 59 days.

1978 - Melissa Ludtke, a writer for "Sports Illustrated", filed a suit in U.S. District Court. The result was that Major League Baseball could not bar female writers from the locker room after the game.

1981 - Sandra Day O'Connor became the first female justice of the U.S. Supreme Court when she was sworn in as the 102nd justice. She had been nominated the previous July by U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

1983 - A Soviet military officer, Stanislav Petrov, averted a potential worldwide nuclear war. He declared a false alarm after a U.S. attack was detected by a Soviet early warning system. It was later discovered the alarms had been set off when the satellite warning system mistakenly interpreted sunlight reflections off clouds as the presence of enemy missiles.

1986 - An 1894-S Barber Head dime was bought for $83,000 at a coin auction in California. It is one of a dozen that exist.

1987 - The booty collected from the Wydah, which sunk off Cape Cod in 1717, was auctioned off. The worth was around $400 million.

1990 - The U.N. Security Council voted to impose an air embargo against Iraq. Cuba was the only dissenting vote.

1991 - The U.N. Security Council unanimously ordered a worldwide arms embargo against Yugoslavia and all of its warring factions.

1992 - In Orlando, FL, a judge ruled in favor of 12-year-old Gregory Kingsley. He had sought a divorce from his biological parents.

1992 - The Mars Observer blasted off on a mission that cost $980 million. The probe has not been heard from since it reached Mars in August of 1993.

1995 - Ross Perot announced that he would form the Independence Party.

1997 - NBC sportscaster Marv Albert pled guilty to assault and Battery of a lover. He was fired from NBC within hours.

1997 - Mark & Brian received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2001 - Michael Jordan announced that he would return to the NBA as a player for the Washington Wizards. Jordan became the president of basketball operations for the team on January 19, 2000.

2002 - U.S. forces landed in Ivory Coast to aid in the rescue foreigners trapped in a school by fighting between government troops and rebel troops. Rebels had attempted to take over the government on September 19.

2012 - China launched its first aircraft carrier into service.

September 26, 2015

Today's: Famous Birthdays - music history

1777 - Philadelphia was occupied by British troops during the American Revolutionary War.

1789 - Thomas Jefferson was appointed America's first Secretary of State. John Jay was appointed the first chief justice of the U.S. Samuel Osgood was appointed the first Postmaster-General. Edmund Jennings Randolph was appointed the first Attorney General.

1892 - "The King of Marches" was introduced to the general public.

1908 - Ed Eulbach of the Chicago Cubs became the first baseball player to pitch both games of a doubleheader and win both with shutouts.

1908 - In "The Saturday Evening Post" an ad for the Edison Phonograph appeared.

1914 - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission was established.

1918 - During World War I, the Meuse-Argonne offensive against the Germans began. It was the final Allied offensive on the western front.

1950 - U.N. troops recaptured the South Korean capital of Seoul from the North Koreans during the Korean Conflict.

1955 - The New York Stock Exchange suffered its worst decline since 1929 when the word was released concerning U.S. President Eisenhower's heart attack.

1960 - The first televised debate between presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy took place in Chicago, IL.

1962 - "The Beverly Hillbillies" premiered on CBS-TV.

1964 - "Gilligan's Island" premiered on CBS-TV. The show aired for the last time on September 4, 1967.

1969 - "The Brady Bunch" series premiered on ABC-TV.

1980 - The Cuban government abruptly closed Mariel Harbor to end the freedom flotilla of Cuban refugees that began the previous April.

1981 - The Boeing 767 made its maiden flight in Everett, WA.

1984 - Britain and China initialed a draft agreement on the future of Hong Kong when the Chinese take over ruling the British Colony.

1985 - Shamu was born at Sea World in Orlando, FL. Shamu was the first killer whale to survive being born in captivity.

1986 - The episode of "Dallas" that had Bobby Ewing returning from the dead was aired.

1986 - William H. Rehnquist became chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court following the retirement of Warren Burger.

1990 - The Motion Picture Association of America announced that it had created a new rating. The new NC17 rating was to keep moviegoers under the age of 17 from seeing certain films.

1991 - Four men and four women began their two-year stay inside the "Biosphere II." The project was intended to develop technology for future space colonies.

1991 - The U.S. Congress heard a plea from Kimberly Bergalis concerning mandatory AIDS testing for health care workers.

1993 - The eight people who had stayed in "Biosphere II" emerged from their sealed off environment.

1995 - The warring factions of Bosnia agreed on guidelines for elections and a future government.

1996 - Shannon Lucid returned to Earth after being in space for 188 days. she set a time record for a U.S. astronaut in space and in the world for time spent by a woman in space.

2000 - The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. The act states that an infant would be considered to have been born alive if he or she is completely extracted or expelled from the mother and breathes and has a beating heart and definite movement of the voluntary muscles.

2000 - Slobodan Milosevic conceded that Vojislav Kostunica had won Yugoslavia's presidential election and declared a runoff. The declared runoff prompted mass protests.

2001 - In Kabul, Afghanistan, the abandoned U.S. Embassy was stormed by protesters. It was the largest anti-Amercian protest since the terror attacks on New York City and Washington, DC, on September 11.

2001 - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres announced plans to formalize a cease-fire and end a year of fighting in the region.

2006 - Facebook was openened to everyone at least 13 years or older with a valid email address.

September 27, 2015

1779 - John Adams was elected to negotiate with the British over the American Revolutionary War peace terms.

1825 - George Stephenson operated the first locomotive that hauled a passenger train.

1894 - The Aqueduct Race Track opened in New York City, NY.

1928 - The U.S. announced that it would recognize the Nationalist Chinese Government.

1938 - The League of Nations branded the Japanese as aggressors in China.

1939 - After 19 days of resistance, Warsaw, Poland, surrendered to the Germans after being invaded by the Nazis and the Soviet Union during World War II.

1940 - The Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis was set up. The military and economic pact was for 10 years between Germany, Italy and Japan.

1954 - The "Tonight!" show made its debut on NBC-TV with Steve Allen as host.

1962 - The U.S. sold Hawk anti-aircraft missiles to Israel.

1968 - The U.K.'s entry into the European Common Market was barred by France.

1970 - "The Original Amateur Hour" aired for the last time on CBS. It had been on television for 22 years.

1973 - U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew said he would not resign after he pled "no contest" to a charge of tax evasion. He did resign on October 10th.

1979 - The Department of Education became the 13th Cabinet in U.S. history after the final approval from Congress.

1982 - Italian and French soldiers entered the Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps in Beirut. The move was made by the members of a multinational force due to hundreds of Palestinians being massacred by Christian militiamen.

1983 - Larry Bird signed a seven-year contract with the Boston Celtics worth $15 million. The contract made him the highest paid Celtic in history.

1986 - The U.S. Senate approved federal tax code changes that were the most sweeping since World War II.

1989 - Columbia Pictures Entertainment agreed to buyout Sony Corporation for $3.4 billion.

1989 - Two men went over the 176-foot-high Niagara Falls in a barrel. Jeffrey Petkovich and Peter Debernardi were the first to ever survive the Horshoe Falls.

1990 - The deposed emir of Kuwait addressed the U.N. General Assembly and denounced the "rape, destruction and terror" that Iraq had inflicted upon his country.

1991 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush eliminated all land-based tactical nuclear arms and removed all short-range nuclear arms from ships and submarines around the world. Bush then called on the Soviet Union to do the same.

1994 - More than 350 Republican congressional candidates signed the Contract with America. It was a 10-point platform they pledged to enact if voters sent a GOP majority to the House.

1995 - The U.S. government unveiled the redesigned $100 bill. The bill featured a larger, off-center portrait of Benjamin Franklin.

1998 - In Germany, Social Democrat Gerhard Schroeder was elected chancellor. The election ended 16 years of conservative rule.

1998 - Mark McGwire (St. Louis Cardinals) set a major league baseball record when he hit his 70th home run of the season.

2004 - North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon announced that North Korea had turned plutonium from 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods into nuclear weapons. He also said that the weapons were to serve as a deterrent against increasing U.S. nuclear threats and to prevent nuclear war in northeast Asia. The U.S. State Department noted that the U.S. has repeatedly said that the U.S. has no plans to attack North Korea.

September 29, 2015

1789 - A regular army was established by the U.S. War Department with several hundred men.

1829 - The first public appearance by London's re-organized police force was met with jeers from political opponents. The force became known as Scotland Yard.

1902 - David Belasco opened his first Broadway theater.

1930 - Lowell Thomas made his debut on CBS Radio. He was in the radio business for the next 46 years.

1930 - Bing Crosby and Dixie Lee were married.

1940 - The radio quiz show "Double or Nothing" debuted on the Mutual Radio Network.

1943 - U.S. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and Italian Marchal Pietro Badoglio signed an armistice aboard the British ship Nelson.

1946 - "The Adventures of Sam Spade" debuted on CBS Radio.

1951 - The first network football game was televised by CBS-TV in color. The game was between the University of California and the University of Pennsylvania.

1953 - "Make Room for Daddy" premiered on ABC-TV.

1955 - "A View From the Bridge," a play by Arthur Miller, opened in New York at the Coronet Theater.

1957 - The New York Giants played their last game at the Polo Grounds. The next year the Giants were in San Francisco, CA.

1960 - "My Three Sons" debuted on ABC-TV.

1962 - U.S. President John F. Kennedy nationalized the Mississippi National guard in response to city officials defying federal court orders. The orders had been to enroll James Meredith at the University of Mississippi.

1963 - "My Favorite Martian" premiered on CBS-TV.

1963 - "The Judy Garland Show" premiered on CBS-TV.

1967 - The International Monetary Fund reformed monetary systems around the world.

1977 - Eva Shain became the first woman to officiate a heavyweight title boxing match. About 70 million people watched Muhammad Ali defeat Ernie Shavers on NBC-TV.

1982 - In Chicago, IL, seven people died after taking capsules of Extra-Strength Tylenol that had been laced with cyanide. 264,000 bottles were recalled.

1983 - The War Powers Act was used for the first time by the U.S. Congress when they authorized President Reagan to keep U.S. Marines in Lebanon for 18 more months.

1983 - "A Chorus Line" with performance number 3,389 became the longest running show on Broadway.

1984 - Irish officials announced that they had intercepted the Marita Anne carrying seven tons of U.S.-purchased weapons. The weapons were intended for the Irish Republican Army.

1984 - Elizabeth Taylor was voted to be the world's most beautiful woman in a Louis Harris poll. Taylor was at the time in the Betty Ford Clinic overcoming a weight problem.

1986 - Mary Lou Retton announced that she was quitting gymnastics.

1988 - The space shuttle Discovery took off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. It was the first manned space flight since the Challenger disaster.

1990 - "Millie's Book" by First Lady Barbara Bush was the best-selling non-fiction book in the U.S.

1992 - Magic Johnson announced that he was returning to professional basketball. The comeback ended the following November.

1992 - Brazilian lawmakers overwhelmingly voted to impeach President Fernando Collor de Mello.

1993 - Bosnia's parliament voted overwhelmingly to reject an international peace plan unless Bosnian Serbs returned land that had been taken by force.

1994 - The U.S. House voted to end the practice of lobbyist buying meals and entertainment for members of Congress.

1998 - Hasbro announced plans to introduce an action figure of retired U.S. General Colin Powell.

2008 - The Dow Industrial Average lost 777 points. It was the largest one-day decline to date. The drop came after the U.S. House of Representatives had voted down a $700 billion bank bailout plan.

2010 - In China, Canton Tower became operational.

September 30, 2015

1399 - Henry Bolingbroke became the King of England as Henry IV.

1777 - The Congress of the United States moved to York, PA, due to advancing British forces.

1787 - The Columbia left Boston and began the trip that would make it the first American vessel to sail around the world.

1846 - Dr. William Morton performed a painless tooth extraction after administering ether to a patient.

1861 - Chewing gum tycoon William Wrigley, Jr. was born.

1868 - Spain's Queen Isabella was deposed and fled to France.

1882 - In Appleton, WI, the world's first hydroelectric power plant began operating.

1927 - George Herman "Babe" Ruth hit his 60th homerun of the season. He broke his own record with the homerun. The record stood until 1961 when Roger Maris broke the record.

1930 - "Death Valley Days" was heard for the first time on the NBC Blue radio network.

1935 - "The Adventures of Dick Tracey" debuted on Mutual Radio Network.

1935 - "Porgy and Bess" premiered in Boston.

1938 - The Munich Conference ended with a decision to appease Adolf Hitler. Britain, and France allowed Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland to be annexed by the Nazis.

1939 - "Captain Midnight" was heard for the first time on the Mutual Radio Network.

1946 - An international military tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany, found 22 top Nazi leaders guilty of war crimes.

1947 - The World Series was televised for the first time. The sponsors only paid $65,000 for the entire series between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees.

1949 - The Berlin Airlift came to an end. The airlift had taken 2.3 million tons of food into the western sector despite the Soviet blockade.

1951 - "The Red Skelton Show" debuted on NBC-TV.

1954 - The U.S. Navy commissioned the Nautilus submarine at Groton, CT. It was the first atomic-powered vessel. The submarine had been launched on January 21, 1954.

1954 - Julie Andrews made her first Broadway appearance in "The Boy Friend".

1962 - James Meredith succeeded in registering at the University of Mississippi. It was his fourth attempt to register.

1963 - The Soviet Union publicly declared itself on the side of India in their dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir.

1966 - Albert Speer and Baldur von Schirach were released at midnight from Spandau prison after completing their 20-year sentences. Speer was the Nazi minister of armaments and von Schirach was the founder of Hitler Youth.

1971 - The Soviet Union and the United States signed pacts that were aimed at avoiding an accidental nuclear war.

1971 - A committee of nine people was organized to investigate the prison riot at Attica, NY. 10 hostages and 32 prisoners were killed when National Guardsmen stormed the prison on September 13, 1971.

1976 - California enacted the Natural Death Act of California. The law was the first example of right-to-die legislation in the U.S.

1980 - Israel issued its new currency, the shekel, to replace the pound.

1983 - The first AH-64 Apache attack helicopter was rolled out by McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Company.

1982 - "Cheers" began an 11-year run on NBC-TV.

1984 - Mike Witt became only the 11th pitcher to throw a perfect game in major league baseball.

1984 - "Doonesbury" by Garry Trudeau returned. The comic strip had not been printed in nearly 20 months.

1986 - The U.S. released accused Soviet spy Gennadiy Zakharov, one day after the Nicholas Daniloff had been released by the Soviets.

1987 - Mikhail S. Gorbachev retired President Andrei A. Gromyko from the Politburo and fired other old-guard leaders in a shake-up at the Kremlin.

1989 - Thousands of East Germans began emigrating under an accord between the NATO nations and the Soviet Union.

1989 - Non-Communist Cambodian guerrillas claimed that they had captured 3 towns and 10 other positions from the residing government forces.

1990 - The Soviet Union and South Korea opened diplomatic relations.

1991 - Haiti's first freely elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was overthrown by Brigadier General Raoul Cedras. Aristide was later returned to power.

1992 - George Brett of the Kansas City Royals reached his 3,000th career hit during a game against the California Angels.

1992 - Moscow banks distributed privatization vouchers aimed at turning millions of Russians into capitalists.

1993 - U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell retired.

1994 - The space shuttle Endeavor took off on an 11-day mission. Part of the mission was to use a radar instrument to map remote areas of the Earth.

1997 - France's Roman Catholic Church apologized for its silence during the persecution and deportation of Jews the pro-Nazi Vichy regime.

1998 - Gov. Pete Wilson of California signed a bill into law that defined "invasion of privacy as trespassing with the intent to capture audio or video images of a celebrity or crime victim engaging in a personal of family activity." The law went into effect January 1, 1999.

1999 - The San Francisco Giants played the Los Angeles Dodgers in the last baseball game to be played at Candlestick Park (3Com Park). The Dodgers won 9-4.

1999 - In Tokaimura, Japan, radiation escaped a nuclear facility after workers accidentally set off an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction.

2014 - Amazon filed for a patent for a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) configured to autonomously deliver items to customers. The patent was related to Amazon's plan for their Prime Air service.

October 1, 2015

1569 - The Duke of Norfolk was imprisoned by Britain's Queen Elizabeth for trying to marry Mary the Queen of Scots.

1800 - Spain ceded the territory of Louisiana back to France. Later the property would be purchased by the U.S. effectively doubling its size.

1880 - Thomas Edison began the commercial production of electric lamps at Edison Lamp Works in Menlo Park.

1885 - Special delivery mail service began in the United States. The first routes were in West Virginia.

1890 - The U.S. Congress passed the McKinley Tariff Act. The act raised tariffs to a record level.

1896 - Rural Free Delivery was established by the U.S. Post Office.

1903 - The first modern World Series took place between the Boston Pilgrims and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

1908 - The Model T automobile was introduced by Henry Ford. The purchase price of the car was $850.

1918 - Damascus was captured from the Turks during World War I by a force made up of British and Arab forces.

1933 - Babe Ruth made his final pitching appearance. He pitched all nine innings and hit a home run in the 5th inning.

1936 - General Francisco Franco was proclaimed the head of the Spanish state.

1938 - German forces enter Czechoslovakia and seized control of the Sudetenland. The Munich Pact had been signed two days before.

1940 - The Pennsylvania Turnpike opened as the first toll superhighway in the United States.

1943 - Naples was captured by the Allied forces during World War II.

1946 - The International War Crimes Tribunal in Nuremberg sentenced 12 Nazi officials to death. Seven others were sentenced to prison terms and 3 were acquitted.

1946 - The first baseball play-off game for a league championship was played. The St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Brooklyn Dodgers, 4-2.

1949 - Mao Tse-tung raised the first flag of the People's Republic of China when the communist forces had defeated the Nationalists. The Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan.

1952 - "This is Your Life" began airing on NBC-TV.

1961 - Roger Maris (New York Yankees) hit his 61st home run of the season to beat Babe Ruth's major league record of 60.

1962 - Johnny Carson began hosting the "Tonight" show on NBC-TV. He stayed with the show for 29 years. jack Paar was the previous host.

1964 - The Free Speech Movement was started at the University of California at Berkeley.

1968 - "Night of the Living Dead" premiered in Pittsburgh, PA.

1971 - Walt Disney World opened in Orlando, FL.

1972 - The Chinese government approved friendly relations with the United States.

1979 - The United States handed control of the Canal Zone over to Panama.

1980 - Robert Redford became the first male to appear alone on the cover of "Ladies' Home Journal." He was the only male to achieve this in 97 years.

1982 - EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) Center opened in Florida. The concept was planned by Walt Disney.

1984 - U.S. Labor Secretary Raymond Donovan announced that he was taking a leave of absence following his indictment on charges of larceny and fraud. He was later acquitted.

1985 - The PLO's headquarters in Tunisia was raided by Israeli jet fighters.

1988 - Mikhail Gorbachev assumed the Soviet presidency.

1989 - The authorized Charles Schulz biography, Good Grief, was published.

1989 - 7,000 East Germans were welcomed into West Germany after they were allowed to leave by the communist government.

1990 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush addressed the U.N. General Assembly and once again condemned Iraq's takeover of Kuwait.

1990 - In Croatia, minority Serbs proclaimed autonomy.

1991 - U.S. President Bush condemned the military coup in Haiti that removed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power. U.S. economic and military aid was suspended.

1991 - The U.S. trust territory of Palau became independent.

1992 - The Strategic Arm Reduction Treaty was approved by the U.S. Senate.

1994 - The U.S. and Japan avoided a trade war by reaching a series of trade agreements.

1994 - The National Hockey League (NHL) team owners began a lockout of the players that lasted 103 days.

1995 - Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and nine other defendants were convicted in New York of conspiring to attack the U.S. through bombings, kidnappings and assassinations.

1996 - Lucent Technologies became an independent company.

1998 - The U.S. government posted a $2.2 million reward for the capture of Augustin Vasquez Mendoza. He is accused of killing an undercover U.S. agent during a drug purchase in 1994.

1999 - The 50th anniversary of the founding of the Peoples Republic of China was celebrated in Beijing.

2001 - San Francisco's Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to ban Internet filters designed to keep pornography away from children at city libraries. The board left the decision up to the Library Commission to decide whether to install filtering software in children's areas. A federal law in the U.S. mandated the use of the filters.

2009 - In the United Arab Emirates, the exterior construction of the Burj Khalifa skyscraper was completed.

October 1, 2015

1492 - King Henry VII of England invaded France.

1780 - British army major John Andre was hanged as a spy. He was carrying information about the actions of Benedict Arnold.

1835 - The first battle of the Texas Revolution took place near the Guadalupe River when American settlers defeated a Mexican cavalry unit.

1836 - Charles Darwin returned to England after 5 years of acquiring knowledge around the world about fauna, flora, wildlife and geology. He used the information to develop his "theory of evolution" which he unveiled in his 1859 book entitled The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.

1869 - Mahatma (Mohandas) K Gandhi was born. He was known for his advocacy of non-violent resistance to fight tyranny.

1870 - Rome was made the capital of Italy.

1876 - The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas opened. It was the state's first venture into public higher education. The school was formally dedicated 2 days later by Texas Gov. Richard Coke.

1889 - The first international Conference of American States began in Washington, DC.

1908 - Addie Joss of Cleveland pitched the fourth perfect game in major league baseball history.

1919 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed.

1920 - The Cincinnati Reds and the Pittsburgh Pirates played the only triple-header in baseball history. The Reds won 2 of the 3 games.

1924 - The Geneva Protocol adopted the League of Nations.

1925 - Scottish inventor John Logie Baird completed the first transmission of moving images.

1929 - "The National Farm and Home Hour" debuted on NBC radio.

1933 - "Red Adams" debuted on NBC radio.

1937 - Warner Bros. released "Love Is on the Air." Ronald Reagan made his acting debut in the motion picture. He was 26 years old.

1941 - Operation Typhoon was launched by Nazi Germany. The plan was an all-out offensive against Moscow.

1944 - The Nazis crushed the Warsaw Uprising.

1947 - The Federatino Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) formally established Formula One racing in Grand Prix competition.

1948 - The first automobile race to use asphalt, cement and dirt roads took place in Watkins Glen in New York. It was the first road race in the U.S. following World War II.

1949 - "The Aldrich Family" debuted on NBC-TV.

1950 - "Peanuts," the comic strip created by Charles M. Schulz, was published for the first time in seven newspapers.

1953 - "Person to Person" debuted on CBS-TV.

1955 - "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" debuted on CBS-TV.

1958 - Guinea, the French colony in West Africa, proclaimed its independence. Sekou Toure was the first president of the Republic of Guinea.

1959 - "The Twilight Zone" debuted on CBS-TV. The show ran for 5 years for a total of 154 episodes.

1962 - U.S. ports were closed to nations that allowed their ships to carry arms to Cuba, ships that had docked in a socialist country were prohibited from docking in the United States during that voyage, and the transport of U.S. goods was banned on ships owned by companies that traded with Cuba.

1967 - Thurgood Marshall was sworn in. He was the first African-American member of the U.S. Supreme Court.

1988 - Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered free elections.

1989 - In Leipzig, East Germany a protest took place demanding the legalization of opposition groups and the adoption of democratic reforms.

1990 - The Allies ceded their rights to areas they occupied in Germany.

1993 - Opponents of Russian President Boris Yeltsin fought police and set up burning barricades.

1998 - Hawaii sued petroleum companies, claiming state drivers were overcharged by about $73 million a year in price-fixing.

1998 - About 10,000 Turkish soldiers crossed into northern Iraq and attacked Kurdish rebels.

2001 - The U.S. Postmaster unveiled the "Tribute to America" stamp. The stamp was planned for release the next month.

2001 - NATO, for the first time, invoked a treaty clause that stated that an attack on one member is an attack on all members. The act was in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.

October 3, 2015

1863 - U.S. President Lincoln declared that the last Thursday of November would be recognized as Thanksgiving Day.

1888 - "The Yeomen of the Guard" was performed for the first time. It was the first of 423 shows.

1893 - The motor-driven vacuum cleaner was patented by J.S. Thurman.

1901 - The Victor Talking Machine Company was incorporated. After a merger with Radio Corporation of America the company became RCA-Victor.

1906 - W.T. Grant opened a 25-cent department store.

1922 - Rebecca L. Felton became the first female to hold office of U.S. Senator. She was appointed by Governor Thomas W. Hardwick of Georgia to fill a vacancy.

1929 - The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes officially changed its name to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

1932 - Iraq was admitted into the League of Nations leading Britain to terminate their mandate over the nation. Britain had ruled Iraq since taking it from Turkey during World War I.

1935 - Italian forces invaded Abyssinia (now Ethiopia).

1941 - Adolf Hitler stated in a speech that Russia was "broken" and they "would never rise again."

1942 - The Office of Economic Stabilization was established by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He also authorized controls on rents, wages, salaries and farm prices.

1944 - During World War II, U.S. troops broke through the Siegfried Line.

1946 - "A Day in the Life of Dennis Day" began airing on NBC-TV.

1951 - CBS-TV aired the first coast-to-coast telecast of a prizefight. Dave Sands defeated Carl Olson at Soldier Field in Chicago.

1952 - Britain became the third nuclear power in the world when they successfully detonated their first atomic bomb. The U.S. and Russia were the only other nuclear powers.

1954 - "Father Knows Best" began airing on CBS-TV.

1955 - "Captain Kangaroo" premiered on CBS-TV.

1955 - "The Mickey Mouse Club" premiered on ABC-TV.

1961 - "The Dick Van Dyke Show" debuted on CBS-TV.

1962 - The Sigma VII blasted off from Cape Canaveral for a nine-hour flight.

1962 - The play, "Stop the World, I Want to Get Off!" opened on Broadway.

1974 - Frank Robinson took over the management position of the Cleveland Indians baseball team. He was the first black manager in major league baseball.

1981 - Irish Nationalist in Maze Prison in Belfast, Northern Ireland called off their hunger strike. The strike had lasted 7 months and ten people had died.

1986 - "Tough Guys" was released. It was the first comedy to feature Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas. It was, however, their seventh movie together.

1988 - The space shuttle Discovery landed safely after its four-day mission. It was the first American shuttle mission since the Challenger disaster.

1989 - East Germany suspended unrestricted travel to Czechoslovakia in an effort to slow the flow of refugees to the West.

1989 - Art Shell became the first African-American head coach in the modern NFL when he took over the Los Angeles Raiders.

1990 - The Berlin Wall was dismantled eleven months after the borders between East and West Germany were dissolved. The unification of Germany ended 45 years of division.

1990 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein made a visit to Kuwait since his country had seized control of the oil-rich nation.

1994 - The headquarters of the Haitian pro-army militia was raided by U.S. soldiers.

2001 - ESPN began its 10th season of National Hockey League (NHL) coverage.

2001 - Barry Bonds (San Francisco Giants) broke Babe Ruth's major league single-season record for walks at 171.

2003 - Ray Horn, of the duo "Siegfried & Roy," was attacked by tiger during a performance. Roy survived the attack after being dragged offstage. The tiger, a 7-year-old male named Montecore, was debuting in his first show.

2006 - North Korea announced that it would conduct a nuclear test as a key step in the manufacture of atomic bombs that it viewed as a deterrent against a U.S. attack. A date for the test was not announced.

2006 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed at a new high ending the day at 11,727.34. Earlier in the session, the Dow had risen to 11,758.95. Both previous records had been set on January 14, 2000.

October 3, 2015

1535 - The first complete English translation of the Bible was printed in Zurich, Switzerland.

1648 - The first volunteer fire department was established in New York by Peter Stuyvesant.

1777 - At Germantown, PA, Patriot forces and British forces both suffer heavy losses in battle. The battle was seen as British victory, which actually served as a moral boost to the Americans.

1876 - The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas formally dedicated by Texas Gov. Richard Coke. It was the state's first venture into public higher education. The college opened for classed two days earlier.

1881 - Edward Leveaux received a patent for the player piano.

1887 - The Paris Herald Tribune was published for the first time. It was later known as the International Herald Tribune.

1893 - The first professional football contract was signed by Grant Dibert for the Pittsburgh AC.

1895 - The first U.S. Open golf tournament took place in Newport, RI. Horace Rawlins, 19 years old, won the tournament.

1909 - The first airship race in the U.S. took place in St. Louis, MO.

1915 - The Dinosaur National Monument was established. The area covered part of Utah and Colorado.

1927 - The first actual work of carving began on Mount Rushmore.

1931 - The comic strip "Dick Tracy" made its debut in the Detroit Daily Mirror. The strip was created by Chester Gould.

1933 - "Esquire" magazine was published for the first time.

1940 - Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini met in the Alps at Brenner Pass. Hitler was seeking help from Italy to fight the British.

1948 - The Railroad Hour" debuted on ABC radio.

1953 - "I Led Three Lives" was first seen in syndication. The TV show was never on network.

1954 - "December Bride" debuted on CBS-TV.

1956 - "Playhouse 90" debuted on CBS-TV.

1957 - "Leave it to Beaver" debuted on CBS-TV.

1957 - The Soviet Union launched Sputnik I into orbit around the Earth. Sputnik was the first manmade satellite to enter space. Sputnik I fell out of orbit on January 4, 1958.

1958 - British Overseas Airways Corporation became the first jetliner to offer trans-Atlantic service to passengers with flights between London, England and New York.

1959 - The first World Series to be played west of St. Louis began in Los Angeles, CA.

1965 - Pope Paul VI addressed the U.N. General Assembly and became the first reigning pontiff to visit the Western Hemisphere.

1976 - Barbara Walters joined Harry Reasoner at the anchor desk of the "ABC Evening News" for the first time.

1981 - Bruce Jenner and Harry Belafonte debuted in their first dramatic roles in NBC-TV's "Grambling's White Tiger".

1987 - NFL owners used replacement personnel to play games despite the player's strike.

1990 - The German parliament had its first meeting since reunification.

1992 - The 16-year civil war in Mozambique ended.

1993 - Russian Vice-President Alexander Rutskoi and Chairman Ruslan Khasbulatov surrendered to Boris Yeltsin after a ten-hour tank assault on the Russian White House. The two men had barricaded themselves in after Yeltsin called for general elections and dissolved the legislative body.

1993 - Dozens of Somalis dragged an American soldier through the streets of Mogadishu. A videotape showed Michael Durant being taken prisoner by Somali militants.

1994 - South African President Nelson Mandela was welcomed to the White House by U.S. President Clinton.

1997 - Hundreds of thousands of men attended a Promise Keepers rally on the Mall in Washington, DC.

1998 - The Vincent Van Gogh exhibit opened in Washington, DC. The exhibit featured 70 paintings.

1998 - Davis Gaines performed as the Phantom in the show "Phantom of the Opera" for the 2,000th time.

2001 - NATO granted the United States open access to their airfields and seaports and agreed to deploy ships and early-warning radar planes in the war on terrorism.

2001 - Barry Bonds (San Francisco Giants) hit his 70th home run of the season to tie Mark McGwire's major league record. Bonds also moved past Reggie Jackson on the all-time list with his 564th career home run.

2001 - Rickey Henderson (San Diego Padres) scored his 2,246th career run to break Ty Cobb's major league record.

2001 - In Washington, DC, Reagan National Airport re-opened. The airport had been closed since the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.

2004 - SpaceShipOne reached an altitude of 368,000 feet. It was the first privately built, manned rocket ship to fly in space twice within a two week window. The ship won the Ansari X Prize of $10 million dollars for their success.

October 5, 2015

1813 - Chief Tecumseh of the Shawnee Indians was killed at the Battle of Thames when American forced defeated the British and the allied Indian warriors.

1877 - Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians surrendered to the U.S. Army after a 1,000-mile retreat towards the Canadian border.

1919 - Enzo Ferrari debuted in his first race. He later founded the Auto Avio Construzioni Ferrari, an independent manufacturing company.

1921 - The World Series was broadcast on the radio for the first time. The game was between the New York Giants and the New York Yankees.

1930 - Laura Ingalls became the first woman to make a transcontinental airplane flight.

1930 - "The Fighting Priest" began airing on CBS radio.

1931 - Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon landed in Washington after flying non-stop across the Pacific Ocean. The flight originated in Japan and took about 41 hours.

1934 - "Hollywood Hotel" became the first major network radio to originate from Hollywood, CA.

1937 - U.S. President Roosevelt called for a "quarantine" of aggressor nations.

1947 - U.S. President Harry S Truman held the first televised presidential address from the White House. The subject was the current international food crisis.

1952 - "Inner Sanctum" was heard for the last time on ABC radio.

1955 - The play "The Diary of Anne Frank" opened at the Cort Theatre in New York.

1969 - A Cuban defector landed a Soviet-made MiG-17 at Homestead Air Force Base in Florida. The plane entered U.S. air space and landed without being detected.

1969 - "Monty Python's Flying Circus" debuted on BBC television.

1970 - Anwar Sadat took office as President of Egypt replacing Gamal Abdel Nassar. Sadat was assassinated in 1981.

1974 - American David Kunst completed the first journey around the world on foot. It took four years and 21 pairs of shoes. He crossed four continents and walked 14,450 miles.

1985 - An Egyptian policeman went on a shooting rampage at a Sinai beach. Seven Israeli tourists were killed. The policeman died in prison the following January of an apparent suicide.

1986 - "Business World" began airing on ABC-TV.

1986 - Sandinista soldiers captured American Eugene Hasenfus after shooting him down over southern Nicaragua.

1988 - In a debate between candidates for vice president of the U.S., Democratic Lloyd Bentsen told Republican Dan Quayle, "You're no jack Kennedy."

1989 - The Dalai Lama (Lhama Dhondrub, Tenzin Gyatso) was named the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent campaign to end the Chinese domination of Tibet. Gyatso was the 15th Dalai Lama.

1990 - The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall opened.

1991 - Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev announced that his country would cut its nuclear arsenal in response to the arms reduction that was initiated by U.S. President George Bush.

1993 - China set off an underground nuclear explosion.

1995 - A 60-day cease-fire was agreed upon by Bonsian combatants. The civil war had lasted 3 1/2.

1997 - In London, the Express Newspapers printed an article claiming that Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were homosexual and that their marriage was a sham to cover the truth. The paper paid damages in a settlement on October 29, 1998.

1998 - The U.S. paid $60 million for Russia's research time on the international space station to keep the cash-strapped Russian space agency afloat.

1999 - Kevin Spacey received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1999 - MCI Worldcom Inc. and Sprint Corp. announced plans to merge.

2006 - Walmart rolled out its $4 generic drug program to the entire state of Florida after a successful test in the Tampa area.

October 6, 2015

1683 - The first Mennonites arrived in America aboard the Concord. The German and Dutch families settled in an area that is now a neighborhood in Philadelphia, PA.

1847 - "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte was first published in London.

1848 - The steamboat SS California left New York Harbor for San Francisco via Cape Horn. The steamboat service arrived on February 28, 1849. The trip took 4 months and 21 days.

1857 - The American Chess Congress held their first national chess tournament in New York City.

1863 - The first Turkish bath was opened in Brooklyn, NY, by Dr. Charles Shepard.

1866 - The Reno Brothers pulled the first train robbery in America near Seymour, IN. The got away with $10,000.

1880 - The National League kicked the Cincinnati Reds out for selling beer.

1884 - The Naval War College was established in Newport, RI.

1889 - In Paris, the Moulin Rouge opened its doors to the public for the first time.

1889 - The Kinescope was exhibited by Thomas Edison. He had patented the moving picture machine in 1887.

1890 - Polygamy was outlawed by the Mormon Church.

1927 - "The Jazz Singer" opened in New York starring Al Jolson. The film was based on the short story "The Day of Atonement" by Sampson Raphaelson.

1928 - War-torn China was reunited under the Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek.

1937 - "Hobby Lobby" debuted on CBS radio.

1939 - Adolf Hitler denied any intention to wage war against Britain and France in an address to Reichstag.

1948 - "Summer and Smoke" by Tennessee Williams opened on Broadway.

1949 - U.S. president Harry Truman signed the Mutual Defense Assistance Act. The act provided $1.3 billion in the form of military aid to NATO countries.

1954 - E.L. Lyon became the first male nurse for the U.S. Army.

1961 - U.S. president John F. Kennedy advised American families to build or buy bomb shelters to protect them in the event of a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union.

1962 - Robert Goulet began the role of Sir Lancelot in "Camelot".

1973 - Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in an attempt to win back territory that had been lost in the third Arab-Israel war. Support for Israel led to a devastating oil embargo against many nations including the U.S. and Great Britain on October 17, 1973. The war lasted 2 weeks.

1979 - Pope John Paul II became the first pontiff to visit the White House.

1991 - Elizabeth Taylor married Larry Fortensky. The ceremony was held at Michael Jackson's estate near Los Angeles, CA. It was Taylor's 8th marriage and Fortensky's 3rd.

1992 - Ross Perot appeared in his first paid broadcast on CBS-TV after entering the U.S. presidential race.

October 7, 2015

1765 - Nine American colonies sent a total of 28 delegates to New York City for the Stamp Act Congress. The delegates adopted the "Declaration of Rights and Grievances."

1777 - During the American Revolution the second Battle of Saratoga began.

1868 - Cornell University was inaugurated in Ithaca, NY.

1913 - For the first time, Henry Ford's entire Highland Park automobile factory was run on a continuously moving assembly line when the chassis was added to the process.

1918 - The Georgia Tech football team defeated Cumberland College 222-0. Georgia Tech carried the ball 978 yards and never threw a pass.

1939 - "Kate Hopkins, Angel of Mercy" was heard for the first time on CBS radio.

1940 - "Portia Faces Life" debuted on the NBC Red network.

1949 - The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) was formed.

1950 - The U.S.-led U.N. forces crossed the 38th parallel and entered North Korea. China in November proved their threat to enter the war by sending several hundred thousand troops over the border into North Korea.

1951 - The Western Hills Hotel in Fort Worth, TX, became the first hotel to feature all foam-rubber mattresses and pillows.

1956 - A U.S. House subcommittee began investigations of allegedly rigged TV quiz shows.

1963 - U.S. President Kennedy signed a nuclear test ban treaty with Britain and the Soviet Union.

1968 - The Motion Picture Association of America adopted the film-rating system that ranged for "G" to "X."

1981 - The Egyptian parliament, after the assassination of Anwar Sadat, named Vice President Hosni Mubarak the next president of Egypt.

1982 - A record was set when 147,000,000 shares were exchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

1985 - The United States announced that it would no longer automatically comply with World Court decisions.

1989 - In Budapest, Hungary's Communist Party renounced Marxism in favor of democratic socialism.

1993 - U.S. President Clinton sent more troops, heavy armor, and naval firepower to Somalia.

1994 - U.S. President Clinton dispatched an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf when Iraqi troops were spotted moving toward Kuwait. The U.S. Army was also put on alert.

1998 - The U.S. government filed an antitrust suit that alleged Visa and MasterCard inhibit competition by preventing banks from offering other cards.

1999 - American Home Products Corp. agreed to pay up to $4.83 billion to settle claims that the fen-phen diet drug caused dangerous problems with heart valves.

2000 - Vojislav Kostunica took the oath of office as Yugoslavia's first popularly elected president.

2001 - Barry Bonds (San Francisco Giants) hit his 73rd home run of the season and set a new major league record.

2001 - The U.S. and Great Britain began airstrikes in Afghanistan in response to that state's support of terrorism and Osama bin Laden. The act was the first military action taken in response to the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on September 11, 2001.

2003 - In California, Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor in the recall election of Governor Gray Davis.

2003 - Randy Quaid received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2004 - Billy Bob Thornton got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

October 8, 2015

1895 - The Berliner Gramophone Company was founded in Philadelphia, PA.

1904 - "Little Johnny Jones" opened in Hartford, CT.

1915 - During World War I, the Battle of Loos concluded.

1918 - U.S. Corporal Alvin C. York almost single-handedly killed 25 German soldiers and captured 132 in the Argonne Forest in France. York had originally tried to avoid being drafted as a conscientious objector. After this event his was promoted to sergeant and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

1919 - The first transcontinental air race in the U.S. began.

1935 - "The O’Neills" debuted on CBS radio.

1938 - The cover of "The Saturday Evening Post" portrayed Norman Rockwell.

1944 - "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" debuted on CBS radio.

1945 - U.S. President Truman announced that only Britain and Canada would be given the secret to the atomic bomb.

1950 - U.N. forces crossed into North Korea from South Korea.

1952 - "The Complete Book of Etiquette" was published for the first time.

1956 - Donald James Larsen (New York Yankees) pitched the first perfect game in the history of the World Series.

1957 - The Brooklyn Baseball Club announced that it had accepted a deal to move the Dodgers to Los Angeles.

1966 - The U.S. Government declared that LSD was dangerous and an illegal substance.

1970 - Soviet author Alexander Solzhenitsyn won the Nobel Prize for literature.

1979 - "Sugar Babies" opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on Broadway.

1981 - U.S. President Reagan greeted former Presidents Carter, Ford and Nixon to the White House. The group was preparing to leave for Egypt to attend the funeral of Anwar Sadat.

1982 - In Poland, all labor organizations, including Solidarity, were banned.

1991 - A slave burial site was found by construction workers in lower Manhattan. The "Negro Burial Ground" had been closed in 1790. Over a dozen skeletons were found.

1993 - The U.S. government issued a report absolving the FBI of any wrongdoing in its final assault in Waco, TX, on the Branch Davidian compound. The fire that ended the siege killed as many as 85 people.

1996 - Pope John Paul II underwent a successful operation to remove his inflamed appendix.

1998 - Taliban forces attacked Iranian border posts. Iran said that three border posts were destroyed before the Taliban forces were forced to retreat. The Taliban of Afghanistan denied the event occurred.

1998 - Canada and Netherlands were voted into the U.N. Security Council.

2001 - Tom Ridge, former Governor of Pennsylvania, was sworn in as director of the new U.S. department of Homeland Security.

2001 - Rush Limbaugh announced to his listeners that he was totally deaf in his left ear and had only partial hearing in his right ear. The condition had happened in a three month period.

2001 - Two Russian cosmonauts made the first spacewalk to be conducted outside of the international space station without a shuttle present.

2002 - A federal judge approved U.S. President George W. Bush's request to reopen West Coast ports, to end a caustic 10-day labor lockout. The lockout was costing the U.S. economy an estimated $1 billion to $2 billion a day.

2003 - China announced that it would have a human crew orbit the Earth briefly on October 15.

2003 - Vietnam and the United States reached a tentative agreement that would allow the first commercial flights between the two countries since the end of the Vietnam War.

2003 - It was announced that Vivendi Universal and General Electric Co. had reached an agreement to merge. The name for the combined company was NBC Universal.

2003 - Siegfried Fischbacher and his manager announced that the "Siegfried and Roy" show at the Mirage was canceled permanently. It was also said that if Roy Horn survived, after a tiger attack on October 3, the duo would continue to work together.

2004 - The first-ever direct presidential elections were held in Afghanistan.

October 10, 2015

1845 - The United States Naval Academy opened in Annapolis, MD.

1865 - The billiard ball was patented by John Wesley Hyatt.

1886 - The tuxedo dinner jacket made its U.S. debut in New York City.

1887 - Thomas Edison organized the Edison Phonograph Company.

1911 - China's Manchu dynasty was overthrown by revolutionaries under Sun Yat-sen.

1913 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson triggered the explosion of the Gamboa Dike that ended the construction of the Panama Canal.

1928 - "Hold Everything" opened on Broadway.

1932 - "Betty and Bob" began on radio.

1932 - "Judy and Jane" began on radio.

1933 - Dreft, the first synthetic detergent, went on sale.

1937 - The Mutual Broadcasting System debuted "Thirty Minutes in Hollywood".

1938 - Nazi Germany completed its annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland.

1943 - Chaing Kai-shek took the oath of office as the president of China.

1957 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologized to Komla Agbeli Gbdemah, the finance minister of Ghana, after the official had been refused service in a Dover, DE, restaurant.

1959 - Pan American World Airways announced the beginning of the first global airline service.

1963 - A dam burst in Italy killing 3,000 people.

1965 - The Red Baron made his first appearance in the "Peanuts" comic strip.

1973 - Fiji became independent after of nearly a century of British rule.

1977 - Joe Namath played the last game of his National Football League (NFL) career.

1978 - The U.S. bill authorizing the Susan B. Anthony dollar was signed by U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

1984 - The U.S. Congress passed the 2nd Boland Amendment which outlawed solicitation of 3rd-party countries to support the Contras. The amendment barred the use of funds available to CIA, defense, or intelligence agencies for "supporting, directly or indirectly, military or paramilitary operations in Nicaragua by any nation, group, organization or individual."

1987 - Tom McClean finished rowing across the Atlantic Ocean. It set the record at 54 days and 18 hours.

1991 - The United States cut all foreign aid to Haiti in reaction to a military coup that forced President Jean-Claude Aristide into exile.

1994 - Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras resigned as Haiti's commander-in-chief of the army and pledged to leave the country.

1994 - Iraq announced it was withdrawing its forces from the Kuwaiti border. No signs of a pullback were observed.

1995 - Gary Kasparov won a chess championship against Viswanathan Anand that had lasted about a month.

1997 - The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, opened to the public. Architect Frank Gehry designed the 450 ft. long and 98 ft. wide building.

2001 - U.S. President George W. Bush presented a list of 22 most wanted terrorists.

2003 - Rush Limbaugh annouced that he was addicted to painkillers and that he was going to check into a rehab center.

2010 - In China, Canton Tower opened to the public.

October 10, 2015