In 1845, the U.S. Naval Academy was formally opened at Fort Severn, Annapolis, Md., with 50 midshipmen in the first class.

In 1886, Griswold Lorillard of Tuxedo Park, N.Y., fashioned the first tuxedo for men.

In 1963, a dam burst in northern Italy, drowning an estimated 3,000 people.

In 1973, Spiro Agnew became the first U.S. vice president to resign in disgrace after pleading no contest to income tax evasion.

In 1985, movie legend Orson Welles, whose remarkably innovative Citizen Kane of 1941 was regarded by many as the best American-made film of all time, died of a heart attack at the age of 70.

In 1993, Greek voters returned to power former Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou and his Pan-Hellenic socialist movement.

In 1994, Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, commander in chief of the Haitian armed forces, resigned to make way for the return of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

In 1995, Israel freed some 900 Palestinian prisoners and pulled its troops out of four towns as the second phase of the peace plan was implemented on the West Bank.

In 1997, major tobacco companies agreed to a settlement in the class-action suit by 60,000 flight attendants who claimed second-hand smoke in planes had caused cancer and other diseases.

Also in 1997, it was announced that the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize would be awarded to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and its coordinator, Jody Williams of Putney, Vt.

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