This Day in History
In Alaska
• In 1954, the Federal Communications Commission granted permission to AT&T to build twin underwater communications cables between Port Angeles, Washington and Ketchikan at a cost of about $13 million.
• In 1973, Angoon residents approved the acceptance of $90,000 in U.S. reparations for the bombardment of the Southeast Alaskan village by the U.S. Revenue Cutter Corwin in October of 1882.
In the nation
• In 1797, the U.S. Navy frigate Constitution, also known as "Old Ironsides," was launched in Boston's harbor.
• In 1879, Thomas Edison invented a workable electric light at his laboratory in Menlo Park, N.J.
• In 1959, the Guggenheim Museum in New York opened to the public.
• In 1960, Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard M. Nixon clashed in their fourth and final presidential debate.
• In 1967, tens of thousands of Vietnam War protesters marched in Washington, D.C.
• In 1976, Saul Bellow won the Nobel Prize for literature, the first American honored since John Steinbeck in 1962.
• In 1998, a radical environmental group, the Earth Liberation Front, claimed responsibil-ity for fires that caused $12 million in damage at the nation's busiest ski resort in Vail, Colo. The New York Yankees swept the San Diego Padres, winning game four of the World Series, 3-0.
In the world
• In 1805, a British fleet commanded by Adm. Horatio Nelson defeated a French-Spanish fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar; Nelson, however, was killed.
• In 1945, women in France were allowed to vote for the first time.
• In 1966, more than 140 people, mostly children, were killed when a coal waste landslide engulfed a school and several houses in southern Wales.
• In 2002, a car packed with explosives pulled up to a bus in northern Israel during rush hour, igniting a massive fireball that killed 14 people along with two suicide attackers.