This Day in History

In Alaska, in the Nation and the World

In Alaska

• In 1919, fire destroyed a large part of the Fairbanks business district.

• In 1959, the first man from the state of Alaska to enlist in the U.S. Navy, William Sparks of Haines, enlisted in Bellingham, Wash.

• In 1969, fallout shelters were available for all Juneau residents. (At this time, there were 13,000 people in the city.)

• In 1985, scientists reported that the long-expected retreat of the Columbia Glacier had begun. The 40-mile long glacier was to retreat 20 to 25 miles in the next several decades.

• In 1988, an earthquake, with a magnitude of 5.8, struck the Kenai Peninsula, with its epicenter 70 miles northwest of Homer.

In the nation

• In 1788, Massachusetts became the sixth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

• In 1899, a peace treaty between the United States and Spain was ratified by the U.S. Senate.

• In 1933, the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, the so-called "lame duck" amendment, was proclaimed in effect by Secretary of State Henry Stimson.

• In 1959, the United States successfully test-fired for the first time a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

• In 1978, Murie Humphrey took the oath of office as a U.S. senator from Minnesota, filling the seat of her late husband, former Vice President Hubert Humphrey.

• In 1992, 16 people were killed when a C-130 military transport plane crashed in Evansville, Ind.

• In 1998, President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair redoubled their pledge to use military force against Iraq, if necessary; during a joint news conference in which the subject of former White House intern Monica Lewinsky came up, Clinton said he would "never" resign. President Clinton signed a bill changing the name of Washington National Airport to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

• In 2003, ABC's "20/20" aired a British documentary on Michael Jackson in which the singer revealed he sometimes let children sleep in his bed.

In the world

• In 1778, the United States won official recognition from France with the signing of a Treaty of Alliance in Paris.

• In 1996, a Turkish-owned Boeing 757 jetliner crashed into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after takeoff from the Dominican Republic, killing 189 people, mostly German tourists.