On This Day in:
1789 – New Jersey became the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights.
1873 – Budapest was formed when the rival cities of Buda and Pest were united to form the capital of Hungary.
1901 – The second Hay-Pauncefoot Treaty provided for construction of the Panama Canal by the U.S.
1910 – Francisco I. Madero led a revolution that broke out in Mexico.
1943 – During World War II, U.S. Marines began their landing on Tarawa and Makin atolls in the Gilbert Islands.
1945 – 24 Nazi leaders went before an international war crimes tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany.
1947 – Britain's Princess Elizabeth married Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh in Westminster Abbey.
1959 – Britain, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark and Sweden met to create the European Free Trade Association.
1962 – The Cuban Missile Crisis ended. The Soviet Union removed its missiles and bombers from Cuba and the U.S. ended its blockade of the island.
1962 – Mickey Mantle was named the American League Most Valuable Player for the third time.
1967 – The Census Clock at the Department of Commerce in Washington, DC, went past 200 million.
1969 – The Nixon administration announced a halt to residential use of the pesticide DDT as part of a total phase out of the substance.
1970 – The majority in U.N. General Assembly voted to give China a seat, but two-thirds majority required for admission was not met.
1977 – Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to address Israel's parliament.
1980 – On Jefferson Island, Louisiana, an oil rig in Lake Pigneur pierced the top of the salt dome beneath the island. The freshwater lake completely drained within a few hours. The Delcambre Canal reversed flow and two days later the previous freshwater lake was a 1,300-foot-deep saltwater lake.
1983 – An estimated 100 million people watched the controversial ABCTV movie 'The Day After.' The movie depicted the outbreak of nuclear war.
1986 – Dr. Halfdan Maher, the director of the World Health Organization, announced the first coordinated global effort to fight the disease AIDS.
1986 – The one billionth Little Golden Book was printed. The title was The Poky Little Puppy.
1987 – Police investigating the fire at King's Cross, London's busiest subway station, said that arson was unlikely to be the cause of the event that took 31 lives.
1988 – Egypt and China announced that they would recognize the Palestinian state proclaimed by the Palestine National Council.
1989 – Over 200,000 people rallied peacefully in Prague, Czechoslovakia, demanding democratic reforms.
1990 – Saddam Hussein ordered another 250,000 Iraqi troops into the country of Kuwait.
1990 – The space shuttle Atlantis landed at Cape Canaveral, FL, after completing a secret military mission.
1992 – A fire seriously damaged the northwest side of Windsor Castle in England.
1993 – The U.S. Senate passed the Brady Bill and legislation implementing NAFTA.
