This Day in History
In Alaska
• In 1918, the Princess Sophia wrecked on Vanderbilt Reef north of Juneau in the early morning hours and sank with all on board the next night.
• In 1919, the weekly Hyder Alaska Miner was established by Joe K. Green.
• In 1929, Alaska Airlines announced a contract with Swansen Fur Trading Co. to bring 15 passengers and 6 tons of freight from Siberia to Fairbanks.
• In 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court's one-year ban on bowhead whale hunting by Alaska Natives.
• In 1979, the film "Spirit of the Wind" premiered in Fairbanks. The movie was based on the life of Alaska dog musher George Attla.
In the nation
• In 1861, the first transcontinental telegraph message was sent as Justice Stephen J. Field of California transmitted a telegram to President Lincoln.
• In 1901, Anna Edson Taylor, a 43-year-old widow, became the first person to survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel.
• In 1931, the George Washington Bridge, connecting New York and New Jersey, opened to traffic.
• In 1939, nylon stockings were sold publicly for the first time, in Wilmington, Del.
• In 1940, the 40-hour work week went into effect under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
• In 1952, Republican presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower declared, "I shall go to Korea" as he promised to end the conflict. (He made the visit more than a month later.)
• In 1962, the U.S. blockade of Cuba during the missile crisis officially began under a proclamation signed by President Kennedy.
• In 1987, 30 years after it was expelled, the Teamsters union was welcomed back into the AFL-CIO.
• In 1993, two George Washington University researchers who had cloned non-viable human embryos told a news conference that science was still far from duplicating human beings - but they urged ethicists to prepare for the future.
• In 2002, authorities arrested Army veteran John Allen Muhammad and teenager Lee Boyd Malvo in connection with the Washington-area sniper attacks.
In the world
• In 1537, Jane Seymour, the third wife of England's King Henry VIII, died 12 days after giving birth to Prince Edward, later King Edward VI.
• In 1998, officials from the United States, China and North and South Korea seeking a permanent peace for the divided Korean peninsula announced in Geneva they had removed the last obstacles to full-blown talks.