This Day in History

In Alaska

• Photos

• In 1900, the last rail for the White Pass and Yukon Railroad was laid, connecting Skagway and Whitehorse.

In the nation

• In 1914, transcontinental telephone service began with the first phone conversation between New York and San Francisco.

• In 1958, President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which created NASA.

In the world

• In 1588, the English soundly defeated the Spanish Armada in the Battle of Gravelines.

• In 1967, fire swept the USS Forrestal in the Gulf of Tonkin, killing 134 servicemen.

• In 1981, Britain's Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer in London. The couple divorced in 1996.

• In 1993, the Israeli Supreme Court acquitted retired Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk of being Nazi death camp guard "Ivan the Terrible" and threw out his death sentence.