This Day in History

In Alaska, in the Nation and the World

In Alaska

• In 1899, a two-day storm wrought havoc along Nome's waterfront, scattering wreckage along miles of shore. Lumber for the hospital was recovered, but the only remains of the whiskey shipment were empty cases.

• In 1904, the Dillingham Post Office was established, with Russell Bates as postmaster.

• 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 1882.

In the nation

• In 1797, the U.S. Navy frigate Constitution, also known as "Old Ironsides," was christened in Boston's harbor.

• In 1879, Thomas Edison perfected a workable electric light at his laboratory in Menlo Park, N.J.

• In 1959, the Solomon R. 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 New York.

• In 1967, tens of thousands of Vietnam War protesters began two days of demonstrations in Washington, D.C.

• In 1971, President Nixon nominated Lewis F. Powell and William H. Rehnquist to the U.S. Supreme Court.

• In 1998, President Clinton signed a $520 billion spending package that was shipped to him just before the 105th Congress slipped into history. A radical environmental group, the Earth Liberation Front, claimed responsibility for fires that caused $12 million in damage at the nation's busiest ski resort in Vail, Colo. Dr. Jane Henney was confirmed as FDA commissioner. The New York Yankees swept the San Diego Padres, winning Game 4 of the World Series, 3-0.

• In 2003, invoking a hastily passed law, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ordered a feeding tube reinserted into Terry Schiavo, a brain-damaged woman at the center of a bitter right-to-die battle. The Senate voted to ban the practice that critics call partial-birth abortion. The New York Yankees pulled away from the Florida Marlins for a 6-1 victory and a 2-1 World Series lead.

• In 2007, Wildfires driven by powerful Santa Ana winds burned several homes near San Diego and in Malibu, Calif. Vice President Dick Cheney said in a speech the United States and other nations would not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon. The Boston Red Sox won the American League championship in Game 7 of their series with the Cleveland Indians, 11-2.

In the world

• In 1805, a British fleet commanded by Admiral Horatio Nelson defeated a French-Spanish fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar; Nelson, however, was killed.

• In 1917, members of the 1st Division of the U.S. Army training in Luneville, France, became the first Americans to see action on the front lines of World War I.

• In 1944, during World War II, U.S. troops captured the German city of Aachen.

• In 1966, more than 140 people, mostly children, were killed when a coal waste landslide engulfed a school and several houses in Aberfan, Wales.

• In 1967, the Israeli destroyer INS Eilat was sunk by Egyptian missile boats near Port Said; 47 Israeli crew members were lost.

• In 2003, the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution demanding that Israel tear down a barrier jutting into the West Bank.

• In 2007, the opposition Civic Platform party ousted Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski's government in Poland's parliamentary elections.