This Day in History
In Alaska
• In 1939, Echo Cove Gold Mining Co. incorporated with plans to develop the old Winter and Pond claim in Berners Bay, north of Juneau.
• In 1968, Lake George, the largest of 54 self-dumping lakes in Alaska and Canada, was officially dedicated as a national landmark. The 15-mile-long lake is 44 miles east of Anchorage. (A self-dumping lake is temporarily formed by glacial movement, dumping its winter collection of water in the spring/summer.)
• In 1969, Alaska Highway 1 was designated the Bluestar Memorial Highway by Gov. Keith Miller.
In the nation
• In 1775, Benjamin Franklin became Postmaster General.
• In 1788, New York became the 11th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
• In 1908, U.S. Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte issued an order creating an investigative agency that was a forerunner of the FBI.
• In 1947, President Truman signed the National Security Act, creating the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
• In 1952, Adlai E. Stevenson was nominated for president by the Democratic National Convention in Chicago; John J. Sparkman was nominated for vice president.
• In 1971, Apollo 15 was launched from Cape Kennedy in Florida.
• In 1990, President Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act.
• In 1995, the Senate voted 69-29 to unilaterally lift the U.N. embargo on arms shipments to Bosnia.
• In 2000, George W. Bush and his just-chosen running mate, Dick Cheney, set out on their first campaign excursion together as they visited Cheney's former hometown of Casper, Wyo. A federal judge in New York approved a $1.25 billion settlement between Swiss banks and more than a half million plaintiffs who alleged the banks had hoarded money deposited by Holocaust victims.