This Day in History
Today
• In 1885, Alfred P. Swineford took office as the second governor of the District of Alaska.
• In 1913, Cordova residents formed the Alaska Good Roads Club with the goal of promoting a road from Fairbanks to Chitna.
• In 1959, the Bureau of Land Management paid Alaska nearly $4.4 million as the state's share of oil and gas lease revenue on public lands in Alaska.
• In 1959, Everett Benson was convicted in Spokane, Wash., on five counts of grand larceny in connection with the financing of an Alaska mine venture.
• In 1986, the five billionth barrel of oil to travel down the Trans-Alaska Pipeline arrived in Valdez.
In the nation
• In 1776, British forces occupied New York City during the American Revolution.
• In 1789, the U.S. Department of Foreign Affairs was renamed the Department of State.
• In 1857, William Howard Taft - who served as president of the United States and as U.S. chief justice - was born in Cincinnati, Ohio.
• In 1959, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev arrived in the U.S. to begin a 13-day visit.
• In 1963, four black girls were killed when a bomb went off during Sunday services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. Three Ku Klux Klansmen were eventually convicted for their roles in the blast.
• In 1999, Larry Ashbrook opened fire in a Fort Worth, Texas, Baptist church, killing seven people and himself.
In the world
• In 1917, Russia was proclaimed a republic by Alexander Kerensky, the head of a provisional government.
• In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws deprived German Jews of their citizenship and made the swastika the official symbol of Nazi Germany.
• In 1940, during the Battle of Britain in World War II, the tide turned as the Luftwaffe sustained heavy losses inflicted by the Royal Air Force.