This Day in History
In Alaska, in the Nation and the World
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In Alaska
• In 1904, all Fairbanks residents started setting their watches according to the big clock in front of Jack Sale's Jewelry Store. Previously, nearly every watch and clock in town had been set according to its owners fancy.
• In 1949, under the new Alaska Public Works Act, the U.S. Bureau of Community Facilities began the job of determining how to spend $5 million in Alaska.
• In 1974, Jay Hammond was finally certified as the winner in a tight gubernatorial race with incumbent William Egan. Hammond had reported 45,483 votes to Egan's 45,118, a difference of 365 votes.
In the nation
• In 1718, English pirate Edward Teach - better known as "Blackbeard" - was killed during a battle off the Virginia coast.
• In 1935, a flying boat, the China Clipper, took off from Alameda, Calif., carrying more than 100,000 pieces of mail on the first trans-Pacific airmail flight.
• In 1963, President Kennedy was shot to death while riding in a motorcade in Dallas. Texas Gov. John B. Connally, in the same limousine as Kennedy, was seriously wounded. Suspect Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested.
• In 2006, a chemical factory explosion in Danvers, Mass., destroyed the surrounding neighborhood but caused no deaths or serious injuries.