This Day In History
- 1784 America’s first daily paper, "The Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser", was published in Philadelphia.
- 1792 The French National Convention voted to abolish the monarchy.
- 1897 The New York Sun ran an editorial that answered a question from 8-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon: ''Is there a Santa Claus?''
- 1931 Britain went off the gold standard.
- 1937 ''The Hobbit,'' by J.R.R. Tolkien, was published.
- 1948 Milton Berle made his debut as permanent host of ''The Texaco Star Theater'' on NBC.
- 1949 the People's Republic of China was proclaimed by its Communist leaders.
- 1964 Malta gained independence from Britain.
- 1970 ''NFL Monday Night Football'' debuted on ABC.
- 1973 The Senate confirmed Henry Kissinger to be secretary of state.
- 1977 President Jimmy Carter's budget director, Bert Lance, resigned after weeks of controversy over past business and banking practices.
- 1982 National Football League players began a 57-day strike.
- 1983 In a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Interior Secretary James G. Watt described a special advisory panel as consisting of ''a black ... a woman, two Jews and a cripple.'' Watt later apologized and resigned.
- 1989 Hurricane Hugo, packing winds of up to 135 mph, crashed into Charleston, S.C.
- 1996 John F. Kennedy Jr. married Carolyn Bessette on Cumberland Island, Ga.
- 1996 The board of all-male Virginia Military Institute voted to admit women.
- 1998 President Bill Clinton's videotaped grand jury testimony was publicly broadcast; in it, Clinton tussled with prosecutors over ''the truth of my relationship'' with Monica Lewinsky.
- 1998 Olympic gold medal track star Florence Griffith Joyner was found dead at her California home at age 38.
- 1999 A powerful earthquake struck Taiwan, killing at least 2,400 people.
- 2001 Congress approved $15 billion to help an airline industry reeling from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
- 2002 Angelo Buono Jr., the Hillside Strangler whose killings of young women terrorized Los Angeles in the 1970s, died in prison at age 67.
- 2003 NASA's aging Galileo spacecraft deliberately plunged into Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere, bringing a fiery conclusion to a 14-year exploration of the solar system's largest planet and its moons.
- 1788 Margaret Taylor (Smith) (First Lady: wife of 12th U.S. President Zachary Taylor; died in 1852)
- 1866 H. G. (Herbert George) Wells (writer)
- 1912 Chuck Jones (cartoonist: The Road Runner, Pepe Le Pew, Wiley Coyote; died Feb 22, 2002)
- 1931 Larry Hagman (actor: I Dream of Jeannie, Dallas)
- 1947 Stephen King (author)
- 1950 Bill Murray (Emmy Award-winning comedy writer: Saturday Night Live [3/12/77]; actor: Stripes, Ghostbusters series, Groundhog Day, Mad Dog and Glory, What About Bob?, Scrooged)
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