This Day in History
In Alaska
• In 1929, the first concrete was poured for what is now the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau.
• In 1947, the Army tanker El Caney, with a crew of 45, was adrift south of the Aleutian Islands in the North Pacific due to a damaged rudder and propeller.
In the nation
• In 1773, the Boston Tea Party took place as American colonists boarded a British ship and dumped more than 300 chests of tea overboard to protest tea taxes.
• In 1950, President Truman proclaimed a national state of emergency in order to fight "Communist imperialism."
• In 1960, 134 people were killed when a United Air Lines DC-8 and a TWA Super Constellation collided over New York City.
In the world
• In 1770, composer Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany.
• In 1809, Napoleon Bonaparte was divorced from the Empress Josephine by an act of the French Senate.
• In 1944, the World War II Battle of the Bulge began as German forces launched a surprise counter-attack against Allied forces in Belgium.
• In 2003, Germany and France, two of the most ardent opponents of the American-led war, agreed to relieve Iraq's debt burden.