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Today in History



1791
Congress passes a resolution authorizing the U.S. Mint; legislation creating the mint will be passed on Apr. 2, 1792.
1803
The first impeachment trial of a U.S. Judge, John Pickering, begins.
1817
The first commercial steamboat route from Louisville to New Orleans is opened.
1845
Florida becomes the 27th U.S. state.
1857
Under pretexts, Britain and France declare war on China.
1861
The serfs of Russia are emancipated by Alexander II as part of a program of westernization.
1863
President Abraham Lincoln signs the conscription act compelling U.S. citizens to report for duty in the Civil War or pay $300.00.
1877
Rutherford B. Hayes, the republican governor of Ohio is elected president, his election confirmed by an electoral commission after disputed election the previous November.
1878
Russia and the Ottomans sign the Treaty of San Stefano, granting independence to Serbia.
1905
The Russian Czar agrees to create an elected assembly.

1918
The Soviets and Germany sign a peace treaty at Brest-Litovsk depriving the Soviets of White Russia.
1919
Boeing flies the first U.S. international airmail from Vancouver, British Columbia to Seattle, Washington.
1923
The first issue of Time magazine is published. It's editor, Henry R. Luce, is just out of Yale.
1931
President Herbert Hoover signs a bill that makes Francis Scott Key's "Star Spangled Banner," the national anthem.
1939
In Bombay, Gandhi begins a fast to protest the state's autocratic rule.

1940
A Nazi air raid kills 108 on a British liner in the English Channel.
1941
Moscow denounces the Axis rule in Bulgaria.
1942
The RAF raids the industrial suburbs of Paris.
1945
Finland declares war on the Axis.
1952
The U.S. Supreme Court upholds New York's Feinberg Law banning Communist teachers in the United States.

1969
Sirhan Sirhan testifies in a court in Los Angeles that he killed Robert Kennedy.
1973
Japan discloses its first defense plan since World War II.
1999
Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky appears on national television to explain her affair with President Bill Clinton.



Joke of the Day

A man and his wife are sound asleep in bed when the phone rings.

The man picks up, listens for a second and says, 'How the hell would I know, you idiot? I'm not a weatherman,' before slamming down the receiver. 'Who was that?' asks his wife. 'Wrong number. It was some jerk asking if the coast was clear