This Day in History
In Alaska
• In 1947, Juneau's first salmon derby was postponed due to weather.
• In 1948, Fish Lake, now called Big Lake, near Anchorage, was opened by the Bureau of Land Management for small tract land claims.
• In 1954, oil lease applications for 276,000 acres of land in the Kateel River area, 300 miles north of Fairbanks, included those of actor Jimmie Stewart.
• In 1966, the U.S. House of Representatives completed congressional action on a bill providing $70 million for Alaska highways, for the first time authorizing funds for maintenance as well as for construction.
• In 1979, a fire destroyed the $2 million tug Yukon near Manly Hot Springs.
In the nation
• In 1886, an earthquake rocked Charleston, S.C., killing up to 110 people.
• In 1887, Thomas A. Edison received a patent for his kinetoscope, a device that produced moving pictures.
• In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an act prohibiting the export of U.S. arms to belligerents.
• In 1954, Hurricane Carol hit the northeastern Atlantic states. Connecticut, Rhode Island and part of Massachusetts bore the brunt of the storm, which resulted in nearly 70 deaths.
• In 1969, boxer Rocky Marciano died in a light airplane crash in Iowa, a day before his 46th birthday.
• In 1985, Richard Ramirez, later convicted of California's Night Stalker killings, was captured by residents of an East Los Angeles neighborhood.
• In 1986, 82 people were killed when an Aeromexico jetliner and a small private plane collided over Cerritos, Calif.
• In 1988, 14 people were killed when a Delta Boeing 727 crashed during takeoff from Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.
• In 1999, Detroit's teachers went on strike, wiping out the first day of class for 172,000 students in one of the largest teachers' strikes in years. The walkout lasted nine days.
In the world
• In 1888, Mary Ann Nicholls was found murdered in London's East End in what is generally regarded as the first slaying committed by Jack the Ripper.
• In 1962, the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago became independent within the British Commonwealth.
• In 1980, Poland's Solidarity labor movement was born with an agreement signed in Gdansk that ended a 17-day-old strike.