This Day in History

In the nation

• In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed a seven-member commission to facilitate completion of the Panama Canal.

• In 1940, "Gone with the Wind" won eight Academy Awards, including best picture of 1939.

• In 1956, President Eisenhower announced he would seek a second term of office.

• In 1960, the first Playboy Club, featuring waitresses clad in "bunny" outfits, opened in Chicago.

• In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson's National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (also known as the Kerner Commission) warned that racism was causing America to move "toward two societies, one black, one white - separate and unequal." At the Grammy Awards, the 5th Dimension's "Up, Up and Away" won record of the year for 1967, while album of the year honors went to The Beatles for "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."