Today in History

Today in History

1833 – The village of Chicago was incorporated. The population was approximately 250.

1861 – The U.S. federal government levied its first income tax. The tax was 3% of all incomes over $800. The wartime measure was rescinded in 1872.

1864 – During the U.S. Civil War, Union forces led by Adm. David G. Farragut were led into Mobile Bay, Alabama.

1884 – On Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor, the cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid.

1914 – The first electric traffic signal lights were installed in Cleveland, Ohio.

1921 – The first play-by-play broadcast of a baseball game was done by Harold Arlin. KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh, PA described the action between the Pirates and Philadelphia.

1921 – The cartoon 'On the Road to Moscow', by Rollin Kirby, was published in the 'New York World'. It was the first cartoon to win a Pulitzer Prize.

1923 – Henry Sullivan became the first American to swim across the English Channel.

1924 – In the New York 'Daily News' debuted the comic strip 'Little Orphan Annie,' by Harold Gray.

1944 – Polish insurgents liberated a German labor camp in Warsaw. 348 Jewish prisoners were freed.

1953 – During the Korean conflict prisoners were exchanged at Panmunjom. The exchange was labeled Operation Big Switch.

1960 – For the first time two major league baseball clubs traded managers. Detroit traded Jimmy Dykes for Cleveland's Joe Gordon.

1963 – The Limited Test Ban Treaty was signed by the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union. The treaty banned nuclear tests in space, underwater, and in the atmosphere.

1964 – U.S. aircraft bombed North Vietnam after North Vietnamese boats attacked U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.

1966 – In New York, groundbreaking for the construction of the original World Trade Center began.

1969 – The Mariner 7, a U.S. space probe, passed by Mars. Photographs and scientific data were sent back to Earth.

1974 – U.S. President Nixon said that he expected to be impeached. Nixon had ordered the investigation into the Watergate break-in to halt.

1974 – 'Tank McNamara', the comic strip, premiered in 75 newspapers.

1981 – The U.S. federal government started firing striking air traffic controllers.

1984 – Toronto’s Cliff Johnson set a major league baseball record by hitting the 19th pinch-hit home run in his career.

1986 – It was revealed that artist Andrew Wyeth had secretly created 240 drawings and paintings of his neighbor. The works of Helga Testorf had been created over a 15-year period.

1989 – In Honduras, five Central American presidents began meeting to discuss the timetable for the dismantling of the Nicaraguan Contra bases.

1990 – U.S. President George H.W. Bush angrily denounced the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

1991 – An investigation was formally launched by Democratic congressional leaders to find out if the release of American hostages was delayed until after the Reagan-Bush presidential election.

1991 – Iraq admitted to misleading U.N. inspectors about secret biological weapons.

1992 – Federal civil rights charges were filed against four Los Angeles police officers. The officers had been acquitted on California State charges. Two of the officers were convicted and jailed on violation of civil rights charges.

1998 – Iraqi President Saddam Hussein began not cooperating with U.N. weapons inspectors.

1999 – Mark McGwire (St. Louis Cardinals) hit his

500th career homerun. He also set a record for the fewest at-bats to hit the 500 homerun mark.

History