This Day in History
In Alaska
Sound off on the important issues at
• In 1903, telegraph service via submarine cable began between Juneau and Sitka.
• In 1906, the office of the U.S. Surveyor General was moved from Sitka to Juneau.
• In 1969, Interior Secretary Walter Hickel approved the right-of-way request for the $900 million Trans-Alaska Pipeline.
• In 1979, Ray Genet, the famous mountain guide from Talkeetna, nicknamed "The Pirate," died on Mount Everest after successfully reaching the summit.
In the nation
• In 1780, British spy John Andre was hanged in Tappan, N.Y.
• In 1835, the first battle of the Texas Revolution took place as American settlers defeated a Mexican cavalry near the Guadalupe River.
• In 1919, President Wilson suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed.
• In 1950, the comic strip "Peanuts," created by Charles M. Schulz, was first published in nine newspapers.
• In 1967, Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court; he was the first black appointed to the nation's highest court.
• In 1975, President Ford welcomed Japan's Emperor Hirohito to the United States.
• In 1986, the Senate joined the House in voting to override President Reagan's veto of stiff economic sanctions against South Africa.
• In 1996, Mark Fuhrman was given three years' probation and fined $200 after pleading no contest to perjury for denying at O.J. Simpson's criminal trial that he'd used a certain racial slur in the past decade. An AeroPeru Boeing 757 crashed into the Pacific Ocean, killing all 61 passengers and nine crew members on board.
• In 2001, NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson said the United States had provided "clear and conclusive" evidence of Osama bin Laden's involvement in the attacks on New York and Washington. Acting Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift unveiled security measures that included a new security chief at Logan International Airport, where hijackers boarded the two planes that smashed into the World Trade Center.
• In 2005, a tour boat capsized on New York's Lake George, killing 20 elderly passengers.
In the world
• In 1941, during World War II, German armies began an all-out drive against Moscow.
• In 1944, Nazi troops crushed the 2-month-old Warsaw Uprising, during which a quarter of a million people were killed.
• In 1958, the former French colony of Guinea in West Africa proclaimed its independence.