Today In History...
In 1831 Bank employee Ed Smith grabs $245,000 in America's first bank robbery at the New York City Bank.
In 1865 A plot to kidnap Abraham Lincoln falls apart because of last minute schedule changes. Would-be kidnapper John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln about one month later.
In 1883 Jan Matzeliger invents the first machine to manufacture entire shoes.
In 1917 The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the eight-hour work day for railroads.
In 1918 The U.S. Congress approves Daylight-Saving Time to save fuel in a country at war.
In 1920 The U.S. Senate, for the second time, rejects the Treaty of Versailles, 49-35.
In 1928 The radio program "Amos and Andy" debuts.
In 1931 The state of Nevada legalizes gambling.
In 1942 President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders men between 45 and 64 register for non-military duty.
In 1945 800 people are killed as Japanese Kamikaze planes attack the U.S.S. Franklin off Japan during World War II.
In 1945 Adolf Hitler issues his so-called Nero Decree, ordering the destruction of German facilities that could fall into Allied hands.
In 1949 The first museum devoted exclusively to atomic energy opens in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
In 1951 Herman Wouk's war novel "The Caine Mutiny" is published.
In 1953 The Academy Awards ceremony is telecast for the first time. "The Greatest Show On Earth" is named Best Picture of 1952.
In 1958 The film "South Pacific" opens in theatres.
In 1975 Pennsylvania becomes the first state to allow girls to compete with boys in high school sports.
In 1976 Buckingham Palace announces the separation of Princess Margaret and her husband, the Earl of Snowdon, after 16 years of marriage.
In 1977 The final episode of the "Mary Tyler Moore Show" airs on CBS-TV.
In 1979 The House of Representatives begins television broadcasts of its day-to-day business.
In 1981 Two workers are killed testing the space shuttle Columbia.
In 1984 The sitcom "Kate and Allie" premieres on CBS-TV.
In 1984 Cuba and Angola set conditions for withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola.
In 1984 John J. O'Connor is installed as the eighth Roman Catholic archbishop of New York.
In 1985 The U.S. Senate votes, 55-45, to authorize production of the MX missile.
In 1987 Televangelist Jim Bakker resigns as chairman of his PTL ministry organization amid a sex and money scandal involving Jessica Hahn, a former church secretary.
In 1987 In a news conference, President Reagan repudiated his policy of selling arms to Iran, saying, "I would not go down that road again."
In 1988 Two British soldiers are shot to death after they were dragged from a car and beaten by mourners attending an Irish Republican Army funeral in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
In 1990 Latvia holds its first free elections in 50 years.
In 1992 Democrat Paul Tsongas pulls out of the presidential race, leaving Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton the clear favorite to capture the party's nomination.
In 1992 British Prince Andrew and Princess Sarah Ferguson announce their separation.
In 1993 U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron R. White announces plans to retire. His departure paved the way for Ruth Bader Ginsburg to become the court's second female justice.
In 1994 The record for the largest omelet is set at 1,383 square feet made with 160,000 eggs in Yokohama, Japan.
In 1994 Talks between North Korea and South Korea collapse, imperiling a U.S.-brokered deal to resolve the North Korean nuclear dispute.
In 1995 After a 21-month hiatus, Michael Jordan returns to professional basketball with his former team, the Chicago Bulls.
In 1995 Palestinian gunmen open fire on a bus carrying Jewish settlers, killing two people.
In 1996 Kansas Senator Bob Dole clinches Republican presidential nomination with a Midwest primary sweep.
In 1997 President Clinton and Boris Yeltsin open talks in Helsinki, struggling to calm tensions over Eastern NATO expansion.
In 1997 The maker of Chesterfield cigarettes settles 22 state lawsuits, admitting that teenagers are marketing targets and agreeing to warn on every pack that smoking is addictive.
In 1997 President Clinton nominates acting CIA Director George Tenet to head the agency.
In 1997 Artist Willem de Kooning, considered one of the 20th century's greatest painters, dies in East Hampton, NY, at age 92.
In 1998 The World Health Organization warns of a tuberculosis epidemic that could kill 70 million people in next two decades.
In 1999 A powerful bomb shatters an outdoor food market in Vladikavkaz, Russia, killing at least 53 people.
In 2000 President Clinton arrives near New Delhi on the first presidential visit to India in 22 years and opened a 6-day trip through troubled South Asia.
In 2001 California officials declare a power alert, ordering the first of two days of rolling blackouts.
In 2002 Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega's appeal for parole is turned down. Noriega is serving a 30-year sentence.
In 2019 The day the swallows return to San Juan Capistrano.