This Day in History
In Alaska
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• In 1922, a serious fire broke out in the Evans Jones coal mine in the Matanuska Valley.
• In 1941, work was started on the railroad tunnel to connect Portage and Whittier.
• In 1959, authorization for night take-offs and landings at the 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 5th 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 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 55-39, short of the two-thirds majority needed for ratification.
• In 1959, Ford Motor Co. announced it was halting production of the unpopular Edsel.
• In 2001, the United States accused Iraq and North Korea of developing germ warfare programs. President Bush signed legislation to put airport baggage screeners on the federal payroll.
In the world
• In 1794, the United States and Britain signed Jay's Treaty, which resolved some issues left over from the Revolutionary War.
• In 1942, during World War II, Russian forces launched their winter offensive against the Germans along the Don front.
• In 1969, Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean made man's second landing on the moon.
• In 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to visit Israel.
• In 1984, nearly 500 people died in a firestorm set off by a series of explosions at a petroleum storage plant on the edge of Mexico City.
• In 1985, President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev met for the first time as they began their summit in Geneva.
• In 2001, gour journalists, an Afghan, an Australian, an Italian and a Spaniard, were murdered in eastern Afghanistan after an ambush on their convoy.
• In 2005, President Bush arrived in Beijing for talks with Chinese leaders. For the first time in 58 years, Indians legally walked into Pakistan after a landmark decision to temporarily open divided Kashmir's heavily militarized border. Tropical Storm Gamma deluged the coast of Central America.