This Day in History

In Alaska

• In 1917, the Coast Guard Cutter Unalga arrived in Juneau to begin the first winter fisheries patrol of Alaskan waters.

• In 1959, the IRS reversed an earlier ruling, and allowed cost of living allowances paid to Federal employees to be declared nontaxable.

In the nation

• In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson pleaded for an end to war in Europe, calling for "peace without victory." (By April, however, America also was at war.)

• In 1938, Thornton Wilder's play "Our Town" was performed publicly for the first time, in Princeton, N.J.

• In 1968, the fast-paced sketch comedy series "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" premiered on NBC-TV.

• In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court, in its Roe v. Wade decision, legalized abortions using a trimester approach.

• In 1998, Theodore Kaczynski pleaded guilty in Sacramento, Calif., to being the Unabomber in return for a sentence of life in prison without parole.

• In 2003, opponents and supporters of abortion rights rallied on the 30th anniversary of the Supreme Court's "Roe versus Wade" ruling.

In the world

• In 1905, thousands of demonstrating Russian workers were fired on by Imperial army troops in St. Petersburg on what became known as "Bloody Sunday."

• In 1908, Katie Mulcahey became the first woman to run afoul of New York City's just-passed ban on females smoking in public. (Declaring, "No man shall dictate to me," Mulcahey served a night in jail after being unable to pay a $5 fine.)

• In 1944, during World War II, Allied forces began landing at Anzio, Italy.

• In 1998, on the first full day of his visit to Cuba, Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass, preaching the message, "Be not afraid."

• In 2003, countering blunt talk of war by the Bush administration, France and Germany defiantly stated they were committed to a peaceful solution to the Iraq crisis.

• In 2007, a car bombing of a predominantly Shiite commercial area in Baghdad killed 88 people. Iran announced it had barred 38 nuclear inspectors on a United Nations list from entering the country in apparent retaliation for U.N. sanctions imposed the previous month.