This Day in History

In Alaska, in the Nation and the World

In Alaska

• In 1906, the Alaska Delegate Act passed Congress, allowing an Alaskan to sit within the House of Representatives (a non-voting seat until statehood in 1959).

• In 1916, Wrangell's first bank, The Bank of Alaska, opened its doors.

• In 1939, Pacific Alaska Airways announced that 20,000 pounds of mail was flown between Juneau, Whitehorse and Fairbanks in the first year of air mail service for these cities.

• In 1941, the Army activated Fort Meares at Dutch Harbor with eight officers and 142 enlisted men.

• In 1969, the Borough of Anchorage called for a 30-day pet quarantine after nine residents of Southcentral Alaska required rabies vaccinations. A rifle slug was found in the engine of an Alaska Airlines; jet. The slug was so flattened that the caliber could not be determined.

In the nation

• In 1541, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto reached the Mississippi River.

• In 1846, the first major battle of the Mexican-American War was fought at Palo Alto, Texas; U.S. forces led by Gen. Zachary Taylor were able to beat back the invading Mexican forces.

• In 1962, the musical comedy "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" opened on Broadway.

• In 1973, militant American Indians who'd held the South Dakota hamlet of Wounded Knee for 10 weeks surrendered.

• In 1978, David R. Berkowitz pleaded guilty in a Brooklyn courtroom to murder, attempted murder and assault in connection with one of the "Son of Sam" shootings that had terrified New Yorkers.

• In 1998, Big Tobacco settled with the state of Minnesota for $6.6 billion as the state's lawsuit was about to go to a jury; Minnesota became the fourth state to settle with the tobacco industry over the costs of treating smoking-related illnesses.

• In 2003, the Senate unanimously endorsed adding to NATO seven former communist nations: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. A federal grand jury indicted Chinese-born California socialite Katrina Leung on charges that she'd illegally taken, copied and kept secret documents obtained from an FBI agent. (A federal judge later dismissed the case against Leung, rebuking prosecutors for misconduct.)

• In 2007, the Pentagon announced that it had notified more than 35,000 Army soldiers to be prepared to deploy to Iraq beginning in the fall.

In the world

• In 1945, President Truman announced in a radio address that World War II had ended in Europe.

• In 1958, Vice President Richard Nixon was shoved, stoned, booed and spat upon by anti-American protesters in Lima, Peru.

• In 1970, anti-war protests took place across the United States and around the world; in New York, construction workers broke up a demonstration on Wall Street.

• In 2003, a Russian-built cargo plane lost a door over Congo, hurling more than 100 Congolese soldiers and their families to their deaths.

• In 2007, bitter enemies from Northern Ireland's bloody past joined forces atop a new Northern Ireland government.