This Day in History
In Alaska
• In 1943, the city of Pelican, on Chichagof Island in Southeast Alaska, was incorporated.
• In 1946, the first mass air movement of Army families to Alaska. The Pan American "Nursery Special," took off from Seattle, carrying nine Army wives and 11 children, to join their families in Fairbanks.
• In 1959, a group known as the Detroit 59'ers were finishing their houses in Talkeetna. The group of seven families were part of a caravan from Detroit to potential homesteads on the Kenai Peninsula.
• In 1968, the state began its Open To Entry program, allowing the staking of up to five acres of land.
• In 1969, a fire of undetermined origin destroyed the major portion of the White Pass & Yukon Route's railroad repair facilities in Skagway.
• In 1970, Metlakatla, in Southeast Alaska, opened its first banking office.
• In 1979, the Department of Public Safety began a round-up of exotic pets whose owners did not have a permit to keep them. There were fears of diseases that exotic species might pass on to indigenous Alaska species. An arsonist set fire to Bobby McGee's Restaurant causing $3 million damages in the then-worst arson fire in Anchorage's history.
In the nation
• In 1914, the Clayton Antitrust Act was passed.
• In 1966, President Johnson signed a bill creating the Department of Transportation.
• In 1969, peace demonstrators staged activities across the country, including a candlelight march around the White House, as part of a moratorium against the Vietnam War.
• In 1976, in the first debate of its kind between vice-presidential nominees, Democrat Walter F. Mondale and Republican Bob Dole faced off in Houston.
• In 1991, despite sexual harassment allegations by Anita Hill, the Senate narrowly confirmed the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, 52-48.
• In 2003, eleven people were killed when a Staten Island ferry slammed into a maintenance pier. The ferry's pilot, who'd blacked out at the controls, later pleaded guilty to 11 counts of manslaughter.