This Day in History
In Alaska
• In 1941, work was started on the railroad tunnel to connect Portage and Whittier.
• In 1959, authorization for night takeoffs and landings at Juneau International Airport was given by the FAA.
• In 1961, RCA formally took over operation of the White Alice network, an ultra-modern radio relay communications system of 33 sites along Alaska's coastline.
• In 1964, Anchorage's first bank robbery entered the FBI files, as a "husky, raunchy-looking man" robbed the National Bank of Alaska's Fifth Avenue branch of $6,000.
• In 1969, Bethel voted to close down its only liquor store.
• In 1977, a fire at the North Pole refinery caused damage that took one month to repair.
In the nation
• In 1794, the United States and Britain signed Jay's Treaty, which resolved some issues left over from the Revolutionary War.
• In 1863, President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address as he dedicated a national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania.
• In 1919, the Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles by a vote of 55 in favor, 39 against, short of the two-thirds majority needed for ratification.
• In 1969, Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean made man's second landing on the moon.
• In 1993, The U.S. Senate approved a sweeping $22.3 billion anti-crime measure. President Clinton met in Seattle with Chinese President Jiang Zemin.
• In 1997, Iowa seamstress Bobbi McCaughey gave birth to four boys and three girls - only the second set of septuplets known to have been born alive.
• In 2002, the Senate, on a 90-9 vote, approved creation of the Department of Homeland Security.
In the world
• In 1942, during World War II, Russian forces launched their winter offensive against the Germans along the Don front.
• In 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to visit Israel.
• In 1985, President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev met for the first time as they began their summit in Geneva.
• In 1988, shipping heiress Christina Onassis died in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at age 37.
• In 2002, an oil tanker carrying 20 million gallons of fuel oil broke in two and sank in the Atlantic Ocean off northwest Spain. U.N. weapons inspectors wrapped up a two-day visit to Iraq. Singer Michael Jackson made an appearance outside his Berlin hotel and briefly held his youngest child, Prince Michael II, over a fourth-floor balcony.