This Day in History
In Alaska
• In 1912, the steamer Portland, the gold ship that started the Klondike Gold Rush, was wrecked at Katalla.
• In 1952, the Juneau Memorial Library was dedicated.
In the nation
• In 1815, American suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born in Johnstown, N.Y.
• In 1920, baseball got its first "czar" as Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was elected commissioner of the American and National Leagues.
• In 1929, Grace Kelly - the future movie star and Princess of Monaco - was born in Philadelphia.
• In 1977, the city of New Orleans elected its first black mayor, Ernest "Dutch" Morial.
• In 1984, space shuttle astronauts Dale Gardner and Joe Allen snared a wandering satellite in history's first space salvage. The Palapa B-2 satellite was secured in Discovery's cargo bay for return to Earth.
• In 1994, Olympic track-and-field gold medalist Wilma Rudolph died in Nashville, Tenn., at age 54.
• In 1999, President Clinton signed a sweeping measure knocking down Depression-era barriers and allowing banks, investment firms and insurance companies to sell each other's products.
• In 2001, an American Airlines Airbus A300-600, en route from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport to the Dominican Republic, crashed 103 seconds after takeoff, killing 265 people.
• In 2003, actress Penny Singleton died in Sherman Oaks, Calif., at age 95. Actor Jonathan Brandis died in Los Angeles at age 27.
In the world
• In 1927, Josef Stalin became the undisputed ruler of the Soviet Union as Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party.