This Day in History
In the nation
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In 1798, the 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was declared in effect by President John Adams nearly three years after its ratification by the states; it prohibited a citizen of one state from suing another state in federal court.
In 1815, U.S. forces led by Gen. Andrew Jackson defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans - the closing engagement of the War of 1812.
In 1918, President Wilson outlined his "Fourteen Points" for lasting peace after World War I.
In 1918, Mississippi became the first state to ratify the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which established Prohibition.
In 1935, rock 'n' roll legend Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, Miss.
In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson declared a "War on Poverty" in his State of the Union address.
In 1965, the Star of India and other stolen gems were returned to the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
In 1987, for the first time, the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 2,000, ending the day at 2,002.25.
In 1998, Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was sentenced in New York to life imprisonment. Air traffic control over the Pacific broke down for 16 hours; officials said the outage posed no real danger. At the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Philadelphia, Michelle Kwan received seven perfect presentation marks out of nine for her short program.
In 2003, A commuter plane crashed at the Charlotte, N.C., airport, killing all 21 people on board.
In 2007, The Florida Gators won college football's national championship by defeating the Ohio State Buckeyes 41-14. Actress Yvonne De Carlo died in Woodland Hills, Calif. She was 84.
In the world
In 1959, Charles de Gaulle was inaugurated as president of France's Fifth Republic.
In 1973, the Paris peace talks between the United States and North Vietnam resumed.
In 1976, Chinese premier Zhou Enlai died in Beijing.
In 2003, A Turkish Airlines jet crashed in Turkey, killing 75 people.
In 2007, A Moroccan man convicted of aiding three of the four suicide pilots who had committed the 9/11 attacks was sentenced by a German court to the maximum of 15 years in prison for his role in the terror plot.