Today in History

US Government assumes conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the country’s two largest mortgage financing companies, during the subprime mortgage crisis.

Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants breaks Hank Aaron’s record with his 756th home run. Bonds’ accomplishments were clouded by allegations of illegal steroid use and lying to a grand jury.

Hurricane Ivan damages 90% of buildings on the island of Grenada; 39 die in the Category 5 storm.

Catharina-Amalia, Princess of Orange, heiress apparent to the throne of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

US invasion of Afghanistan in reaction to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 begins; it will become the longest war in US history.

Election Day in the US ends with the winner between presidential candidates George W. Bush and Al Gore still undecided.

The Recording Industry Association of America files a copyright infringement suit against the file-sharing website Napster.

Fox News Channel begins broadcasting.

Galileo spacecraft arrives at Jupiter after a 6-year journey.

The world’s first internet radio broadcast originates from WXYC, the student radio station of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The Great Flood of 1993 on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers ends, the worst US flood since 1927.

Mary Robinson becomes the first woman elected President of the Republic of Ireland.

Douglas Wilder wins Virginia’s gubernatorial election, becoming the first elected African American governor in the US; during Reconstruction Mississippi had an acting governor and Louisiana had an appointed governor who were black.

Emily Browning, actress, singer, model; won AFI International Award for Best Actress as Violet Baudelaire in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Presidents of five Central American nations sign a peace accord in Guatemala.

Desmond Tutu becomes first black leader of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (now the Anglican Church of South Africa).

Four Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) hijackers seize the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro and demand the release of 50 Palestinians held by Israel.

Japan defeats the United States to win the Olympic Gold in baseball.

A bomb explodes in the US Capitol’s Senate Chambers area, causing $250,000 damages but no one is harmed; a group calling itself the Armed Resistance Unit claimed the bomb was retaliation for US military involvement in Grenada and Lebanon.

The Reagan Administration predicts a record deficit in 1982 of $109 billion.

US President Jimmy Carter signs legislation providing $1.5 billion in loans to salvage Chrysler Corporation.

ESPN, the Entertainment and Sports Programing Network, debuts.

Secret police agent Francesco Gullino assassinates Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov in London by firing a ricin pellet from a specially designed umbrella.

Panama and US sign Torrijos-Carter Treaties to transfer control of the Panama Canal from the US to Panama at the end of the 20th century.

Hua Guofeng, premier of the People’s Republic of China, succeeds the late Mao Zedong as chairman of the Communist Party of China.

A uprising in Bangladesh kills Brig. Gen. Khaled Mosharraf and frees Maj. Gen. Ziaur Rahman, future president of the country, from house arrest.

Congress overrides Pres. Richard M. Nixon’s veto of the War Powers Resolution that limited presidential power to wage ware without congressional approval.

The crew of Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the moon, lifts off at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Robin Finck, musician; guitarist with bands Guns N’ Roses and Nine Inch Nails.

Poland and West Germany sign a pact renouncing the use of force to settle disputes, recognizing the Oder-Neisse River as Poland’s western frontier, and acknowledging the transfer to Poland of 40,000 square miles of former German territory.

The first U.S. units to withdraw from South Vietnam leave Saigon.

In Operation Swift Saber, U.S. Marines sweep an area 10 miles northwest of Da Nang in South Vietnam.

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs a bill establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Jimmy Donal “Jimbo” Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia.

Pro Football Hall of Fame opens in Canton, Ohio.

Congress overwhelmingly passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, allowing the president to use unlimited military force to prevent attacks on U.S. forces.

Patrick Kennedy, son of President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy; dies 39 hours later.

Leonid Brezhnev becomes president of the Soviet Union.

Howard Johnson sets an aircraft altitude record in F-104.

A fire in the Windscale plutonium production reactor (later called Sellafield) north of Liverpool, England, spreads radioactive iodine and polonium through the countryside and into the Irish Sea. Livestock in the immediate area were destroyed, along with 500,000 gallons of milk. At least 30, and possibly as many as 1,000, cancer deaths were subsequently linked to the accident.

Larry Bird, basketball player for the Boston Celtics.

Yo Yo Ma, cellist.

Integration of public schools begins in Washington D.C. and Maryland.

Nikita Krushchev elected first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Vladimir Putin, former prime minister and current (2013) president of Russia.

U.N. forces in Korea under General Matthew Ridgeway launch Operation Ripper, an offensive to straighten out the U.N. front lines against the Chinese.

Alexa Canady, first female African-American neurosurgeon.

Tom Waits, singer, songwriter (“Jersey Girl,” “Downtown Train”), musician, actor (Down by Law).

Kenny Loggins, singer, songwriter; half of Loggins and Messina duo.

Johnny Bench, pro baseball catcher; twice named National League Most Valuable Player, he was dubbed the greatest catcher in baseball history by ESPN.

The president of the United Mine Workers, John L. Lewis, orders all striking miners back to work.

Germany signs an unconditional surrender, effectively ending World War II in Europe.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected to a fourth term by defeating Thomas Dewey.

Joni Mitchell, singer, songwriter.

The U.S. Navy launches USS New Jersey, the largest battleship ever built.

Japanese planes raid Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in a surprise attack, bringing the US into WWII.

Tacoma Bridge in Washington State collapses.

Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark.

The United States recognizes Nazi Germany’s conquest of Austria.

The German Condor Legion arrives in Spain to assist Fransico Franco’s forces.

Buddy Holly, singer, songwriter, rock ‘n roll pioneer.

Thomas Keneally, novelist, author of Schindler’s Ark, the basis for the film Schindler’s List.

Leroi Jones (Imamu Amiri Baraka), playwright.

The film King Kong premieres in New York City.

Ellen Burstyn, actress; won Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974); won Tony for Same Time, Next Year (1975).

A report indicates that Nazis would ensure “Nordic dominance” by sterilizing certain races.

Sonny Rollins, saxophonist.

Benny Andersen, Danish writer, poet and jazz musician.

Noam Chomsky, writer, linguist and political activist.

Edwin Edwards, governor of Louisiana.

Joan Sutherland, opera singer.

Afrikaans is recognized as one of the official languages of South Africa, along with English and Dutch.

Four planes leave Seattle on the first successful flight around the world.

The Irish Republican Army cuts the cable link between the United States and Europe at Waterville landing station.

Benito Mussolini declares himself to be leader of the National Fascist Party in Italy.

Eva (Evita) Perón, first lady of Argentina.

Spartacists call for a German revolution.

The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary with only one dissenting vote in Congress.

Jeannette Rankin (R-Montana) is elected the first congresswoman.

The German submarine U-20 torpedoes the passenger ship Lusitiania, sinking her in 21 minutes with 1,978 people on board.

James Alfred Van Allen, discovered and named the two radiation belts surrounding the Earth.

Albert Camus, French philosopher, novelist and dramatist.

French aviator Roland Garros sets an altitude record of 13,200 feet.

Butterfly McQueen (Thelma McQueen), actress best known for her role as Scarlett O’Hara’s maid Prissy in Gone with the Wind (1939); won Daytime Emmy portraying Aunt Thelma, a fairy godmother in “The Seven Wishes of Joanna Peabody,” an ABC Afterschool Special.

Elia Kazan, producer, screenwriter and director who won directing Oscars for Gentleman’s Agreement and On the Waterfront.

Anna Magnani, Italian actress.

Helen MacInnes, writer.

In North Carolina, a mob defies a court order and lynches three African Americans which becomes known as “The Lyerly Murders.”

W. Warrick Cardozo, physician, researcher of Sickle Cell Anemia.

Ralph Bunche, U.S. diplomat and the first African-American Nobel Prize winner.

Konrad Lorenz, pioneering zoologist.

Imperial Court of China returns to Peking. The Empress Dowager resumes her reign.

Gary Cooper, film actor (High Noon, Friendly Persuasion).

Heinrich Himmler, head of the Nazi SS and organizer of extermination camps in Eastern Europe.

Elizabeth Bowen, British novelist and short story writer (The Death of the Heart).

Stuart Davis, painter.

Sir Milton Margay, the first prime minister of Sierra Leone.

The first heavyweight-title boxing match fought with gloves under Marquis of Queensbury rules ends when James J. Corbett knocks out John L. Sullivan in the 21st round.

Ernst Toch, composer and pianist.

Marc Chagall, French painter and designer.

Nils Bohr, physicist whose model of atomic structure helped establish quantum theory.

American pugilist John L. Sullivan becomes the last of the bare-knuckle world heavyweight champions with his defeat of Patty Ryan in Mississippi City.

Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, two participants in Tombstone, Arizona’s, famous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, are jailed as the hearings on what happened in the fight grow near.

Indian chief Sitting Bull enters Canada with a trail of Indians after the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Rutherford B. Hayes is elected 19th president of the United States.

Maurice Ravel, composer (“Bolero”).

Willa Cather, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist (O Pioneers!, My Antonia).

Piet Mondrian, Dutch abstract painter, leader of the movement known as “de Stijl.”

French Minister of the Interior Leon Gambetta escapes besieged Paris by balloon, reaching the French provisional government in Tours.

Marie Curie, French chemist who researched radioactivity and discovered radium.

Lincoln Joseph Steffens, journalist.

At the Battle of Sailer’s Creek, a third of Lee‘s army is cut off by Union troops pursuing him to Appomattox.

Union General Phil Sheridan’s troops skirmish with the Confederates under Jubal Early outside Winchester, Virginia.

Outlaw George Ives, an alleged member of an outlaw gang known as the “Innocents,” robs and then kills Nick Thiebalt in the Ruby Valley of what would become Montana.

Confederate forces surprise an equal number of Union troops at the Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas.

USS Santiago de Cuba, under Commander Daniel B. Ridgely, halts the British schooner Eugenia Smith and captures J.W. Zacharie, a New Orleans merchant and Confederate purchasing agent.

Edith Sitwell, poet.

Japan opens its ports to trade with the West after 250 years of isolation.

James Whitcomb Riley, poet.

Paul Gaugin, French post-impressionist painter.

The American Medical Association is formed in Philadelphia.

Zachary Taylor, one of the heroes of the Mexican War, is elected president.

Louis III, last King of Bavaria.

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer.

Soprano Jenny Lind (“the Swedish Nightingale”) makes her debut in Weber’s opera Der Freischultz.

Sir James Murray, Scottish lexicographer and editor.

Johannes Brahms, German composer.

Joseph Smith and five others organize the Church of Latter-Day Saints in Seneca, New York.

Beethoven’s “Ninth Symphony” premieres in Vienna.

The first successful U.S. educational magazine, Academician, begins publication in New York City.

After defeating Napoleon at Waterloo, the victorious Allies march into Paris.

Andrew Jackson attacks and captures Pensacola, Florida, defeating the Spanish and driving out a British force.

The earliest known printed reference to the United States by the nickname “Uncle Sam” occurs in the Troy Post.

On the road to Moscow, Napoleon wins a costly victory over the Russians at Borodino.

Rebellious Indians in a conspiracy organized in defiance of the United States government by Tecumseh, Shawnee chief, are defeated during his absence in the Battle of the Wabash (or Tippecanoe) by William Henry Harrison, governor of Indiana Territory.

Theodor Schwann, German physiologist.

Aeronaut Jean Pierre Blanchard — the first person to make an aerial voyage in the New World — dies at the age of 56.

James Madison is elected president in succession of Thomas Jefferson.

Czar Alexander meets with Napoleon Bonaparte.

John Deere, farm equipment manufacturer

Congress divides the Northwest Territory into two parts. The western part will becomes the Indiana Territory and the eastern section remains the Northwest Territory.

In Palestine, Napoleon captures Jaffa and his men massacre more than 2,000 Albanian prisoners.

Napoleon Bonaparte‘s army begins its march towards Cairo from Alexandria.

Thomas Paine defends the principal of universal suffrage at the Constitutional Convention in Paris.

Benjamin Rush, Richard Allen and Absalom Jones found the Non-denominational African Church.

The First U.S. Congress begins regular sessions at Federal Hall in New York City.

Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.

Sacagawea (also Sacajawea), American explorer.

Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American Dr. John Jeffries make the first crossing of the English Channel in a hydrogen balloon.

The Siege of Gibraltar, which was pursued by the Spanish and the French since July 24, 1779, is finally lifted.

General George Washington authorizes the award of the Purple Heart for soldiers wounded in combat.

Shawnee Indians attack and lay siege to Boonesborough, Kentucky.

American troops give up Fort Ticonderoga, on Lake Champlain, to the British.

The United Colonies change their name to the United States.

The British close the port of Boston to all commerce.

Daniel Boone sights present-day Kentucky.

Delegates from nine of the American colonies meet in New York to discuss the Stamp Act Crisis and colonial response to it.

Indian chief Pontiac begins his attack on a British fort in present-day Detroit, Michigan.

Joseph-Marie Jacquard, French inventor, textile industry pioneer.

William Billings, composer.

Etienne Montgolfier, French inventor who, with his brother, launched the first successful hot-air balloon.

A Spanish force invading Georgia runs headlong into the colony’s British defenders. The battle decides the fate of a colony.

Israel Putnam, American Revolutionary War hero.

The Pennsylvania Assembly bans the importation of slaves.

Stephen Hopkins, signer of the Declaration of Independence.

England, Austria, and the Netherlands form an Alliance against France.

The Netherlands, England and Sweden conclude an alliance directed against Louis XIV of France.

The London Gazette, the oldest surviving journal, is first published.

Louis XIV is crowned king of France.

The town of Trimountaine in Massachusetts is renamed Boston. It became the state capital.

In the last great clash of galleys, the Ottoman navy is defeated at Lepanto, Greece, by a Christian naval coalition under the overall command of Spain’s Don Juan de Austria.

The French, under the Duke of Guise, finally take the port of Calais from the English.

The Peace of Ardes ends the war between France and England.

Elizabeth I, Queen of England (1558-1603), led her country during the exploration of the New World and war with Spain.

The German peasants’ revolt is crushed by the ruling class and church.

Gregory XIII, Roman Catholic pope.

Christopher Columbus leaves on his third voyage of exploration.

Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio), Italian painter (Sistine Madonna).

Sir Thomas More, English statesman and writer, famous for Utopia, later executed for refusing to accept Henry VIII as the head of the church.

Joan of Arc breaks the English siege of Orleans.

King Edward II of England is deposed.

The Second Council of Lyons opens in France to regulate the election of the pope.

English King Richard I is killed by an arrow at the Siege of the Castle of Chalus in France.

Otto III takes the throne after his father’s death in Italy. A power struggle between magnates ensues.

The dome of the church of St. Sophia in Constantinople collapses. Its immediate rebuilding is ordered by Justinian.

A Thracian officer by the name of Leo is proclaimed as emperor of the East by the army general, Aspar, on the death of the Emperor Marcian.

The Greek philosopher Aristotle dies.

On the death of Antoninus at Lorium, Marcus Aurelius becomes emperor.

Cicero, considered one of the greatest sons of Rome, is assassinated on the orders of Marcus Antonius.