This Day in History
In Alaska
• In 1882, construction started on the first building on the campus of the Sheldon Jackson School in Sitka.
• In 1940, artist Sydney Laurence announced he was going to die. After a shave, haircut and a negotiation of a painting deal, he admitted himself to the Anchorage Hospital and fulfilled his prediction.
In the nation
• In 1609, English explorer Henry Hudson sailed into the river that now bears his name.
• In 1880, author and journalist H.L. Mencken was born in Baltimore.
• In 1953, Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in Newport, R.I.
• In 1993, the space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral on a 10-day mission.
• In 1998, the White House responded to Kenneth Starr's graphic report on President Clinton by calling it a "hit-and-run smear campaign." Leaders of striking pilots at Northwest Airlines ratified a new contract, ending a walkout that began Aug. 28. Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs became the fourth player in major league baseball history to reach 60 homers in a single season.
In the world
• In 1938, Adolf Hitler demanded self-determination for the Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia.
• In 1943, German paratroopers took Benito Mussolini from the hotel where he was being held by the Italian government.
• In 1944, during World War II, U.S. Army troops entered Germany for the first time, near Trier.
• In 1974, Emperor Haile Selassie was deposed by Ethiopia's military, after ruling for 58 years.
• In 1977, South African black student leader Steven Biko died while in police custody, triggering an international outcry.
• In 1983, the Soviet Union vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution deploring the shooting-down of a Korean jetliner by a Soviet jet fighter on Sept. 1.
• In 1988, Hurricane Gilbert slammed into Jamaica, killing 45 people and causing damage estimated at up to $1 billion.