This Day in History

In Alaska

• Photos

• In 1907, a battle took place in Keystone Canyon, near Valdez, over a railroad right-of-way.

• In 1910, the Copper River and Northwestern Railway link to Chitna was established, and in succeeding years, Railroad Day was celebrated.

• In 1932, the Russell Hyde Merrill memorial beacon was dedicated in Anchorage.

• In 1969, a rupture of a rubberized oil storage bladder at Prudhoe Bay spilled 20,000 gallons of jet fuel onto the rime ice over the bay. A protective dike around the oil storage area was still under construction.

In the nation

• In 1690, one of the earliest American newspapers, Publick Occurrences, published its first - and last - edition in Boston.

• In 1775, American Revolutionary War hero Ethan Allen was captured by the British as he led an attack on Montreal.

• In 1789, the first United States Congress adopted 12 amendments to the Constitution and sent them to the states for ratification. (Ten of the amendments became the Bill of Rights.)

• In 1890, President Benjamin Harrison signed a measure establishing Sequoia National Park.