This Day in History
In Alaska
• In 1896, the post office of Tyoonok was established on Cook Inlet. In 1905, the name was changed to Tyonek.
• In 1916, a 40-man detachment of U.S. infantry arrived at its Anchorage post.
• In 1963, the Glacier Valley Elementary School in Juneau was dedicated.
In the nation
• In 1800, Congress held its first session in Washington in the partly completed Capitol.
• In 1925, actor Rock Hudson was born in Winnetka, Ill.
• In 1934, Lyndon Baines Johnson married Claudia Alta Taylor, better known as "Lady Bird."
• In 1962, Washington's Dulles International Airport was dedicated by President Kennedy.
• In 1968, NBC-TV outraged football fans by cutting away from the closing minutes of a New York Jets-Oakland Raiders game to begin a TV special, "Heidi," on schedule. (Viewers were deprived of seeing the Raiders come from behind to beat the Jets, 43-32.)
• In 1973, President Nixon told Associated Press Managing Editors meeting in Orlando, Fla.: "People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook."
• In 1993, by a wide margin of 234 to 200, the House of Representatives approved legislation implementing the North American Free Trade Agreement in what was seen as a major political victory for President Clinton.
• In 1998, the public got to hear Monica Lewinsky's voice for the first time as the House Judiciary Committee released 22 hours of tape recordings secretly made by Linda Tripp.
In the world
• In 1558, Elizabeth I ascended the English throne upon the death of Queen Mary.
• In 1869, the Suez Canal opened in Egypt.
• In 1917, sculptor Auguste Rodin died in Meudon, France.
• In 1970, the Soviet Union landed an unmanned, remote-controlled vehicle on the moon, the Lunokhod I.
• In 1979, Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini ordered the release of 13 female and black American hostages being held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
• In 1998, Israel's parliament overwhelmingly approved the Wye River land-for-peace accord with the Palestinians. Actress Esther Rolle died in Culver City, Calif., at age 78.