This Day in History

In Alaska, in the Nation and the World

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In Alaska

• In 1884, Alaska's first U.S. district court was formally organized in Sitka.

• In 1928, a windstorm in Cordova did more than $30,000 worth of damage to the town.

• In 1939, a second FBI agent was added to the Juneau office.

• In 1974, negotiators for the Alaska Public Employees Association accepted a 15 percent pay increase for striking supervisors, ending the state's first government employee strike.

• In 1979, a rockslide in Juneau destroyed a 40-foot section of the Basin Road trestle closing access to Gold Creek Basin, a popular hiking area.

• In 1980, Alaska voted to send an all-Republican delegation to Washington, D.C., as Frank Murkowski defeated Clark Gruening in the Senate race and incumbent Rep. Don Young won re-election.

• In 1986, Steve Cowper was elected as the state's seventh governor.

In the nation

• In 1884, Democrat Grover Cleveland was elected to his first term as president, defeating Republican James G. Blaine.

• In 1924, Nellie T. Ross of Wyoming was elected the nation's first female governor to serve out the remaining term of her late husband, William B. Ross.

• In 1952, Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president, defeating Democrat Adlai Stevenson.

• In 1980, Ronald Reagan won the White House as he defeated President Jimmy Carter by a strong margin.

• In 1987, Elizabeth (Lisa) Steinberg, 6, was pronounced dead at a New York City hospital in a child-abuse case that sparked national outrage; her illegal adoptive father, Joel Steinberg, served 17 years in prison for manslaughter.

• In 1991, Ronald Reagan opened his presidential library in Simi Valley, Calif., with a dedication attended by President George Bush and former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon - the first-ever gathering of five past and present U.S. chief executives.