This Day in History

In Alaska, in the Nation and the World

In Alaska

• In 1904, Nome Police Chief Charles Jewett was suspended from his post, accused of accepting bribes from arrestees and "fallen women without due process of law." He was reinstated after 30 minutes.

• In 1907, the Tongass National Forest was established in Southeast Alaska.

• In 1918, the "golden spike" was driven in the railroad that connected Seward and Anchorage.

• In 1949, the director of the Boston Museum proposed installing a cosmic ray laboratory at 18,000-foot Denali Pass on Mount McKinley.

• In 1959, the Kenai Unit 1 well, a joint venture between Union Oil Co. and Ohio Oil Co., set a new Alaska record depth of 14,415 feet. The previous record had been held by Humble Oil Co.

• In 1969, Alaska's oil lease sale pumped $900 million into Alaska's economy as 179 tracts of potentially oil-rich North Slope lands were leased. Former State Attorney General Edgar Paul Boyko filed suit to stop the awarding of 33 of the 179 state oil-lease tracts.

In the nation

• In 1608, John Smith was elected president of the Jamestown colony council in Virginia.

• In 1813, an American naval force commanded by Oliver H. Perry defeated the British in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812.

• In 1846, Elias Howe received a patent for his sewing machine.

• In 1948, American-born Mildred Gillars, accused of being Nazi wartime radio broadcaster "Axis Sally," was indicted in Washington for treason. (She was later convicted, and served 12 years in prison.)

• In 1963, 20 black students entered Alabama public schools following a standoff between federal authorities and Gov. George C. Wallace.

• In 1987, Pope John Paul II arrived in Miami, where he was welcomed by President Reagan as he began a 10-day tour of the United States.

• In 1998, President Clinton met with members of his Cabinet to apologize, ask forgiveness and promise to improve as a person in the wake of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Northwest Airlines and its striking pilots announced an agreement to end a nearly two-week walkout.

• In 2007, Gen. David Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, told Congress he envisioned the withdrawal of roughly 30,000 troops by the summer of 2008, saying the surge in troops had met its military objectives "in large measure."

In the world

• In 1939, Canada declared war on Nazi Germany.

• In 1945, Vidkun Quisling was sentenced to death in Norway for collaborating with the Nazis (he was executed by firing squad in October 1945).

• In 1977, convicted murderer Hamida Djandoubi, a Tunisian immigrant, became the last person to date to be executed by the guillotine in France.

• In 2003, Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, 46, was stabbed in a Stockholm department store; she died the next day. (Mijailo Mijailovic was later convicted of murdering Lindh and was sentenced to life in prison.) The first video image of Osama bin Laden in nearly two years was broadcast on Al-Jazeera TV.