On this date in history:

In 1802, Washington, D.C., was incorporated.

In 1919, U.S. airplane passenger service began when pilot Robert Hewitt flew two women from New York to Atlantic City, N.J.

In 1937, Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

In 1948, the CBS Evening News premiered, with Douglas Edwards as anchor.

In 1952, a ski-modified U.S. Air Force C-47 piloted by Lt. Col. Joseph O. Fletcher of Oklahoma and Lt. Col. William P. Benedict of California became the first aircraft to land at the North Pole.

In 1968, the United States and North Vietnam agreed to open peace talks in Paris.

In 1979, Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative Party won the British general election, making her the first woman prime minister of a major European nation. (She served three terms.)

In 1994, a U.S. district judge in Seattle struck down Washington state's assisted-suicide law.

In 1999, 76 tornadoes tore across the U.S. Plains states, killing about 50 people and injuring hundreds.

In 2003, the noted New Hampshire landmark Old Man of the Mountain collapsed.

In 2006, an Armenian A-320 aircraft plunged into the Black Sea off Russia's southern coast, killing all 113 people aboard. Officials said bad weather was the probable cause.

In 2007, Queen Elizabeth II began her first visit to the United States in 16 years.

In 2009, Jack Kemp, whose career ranged from pro football quarterback to nine-term U.S. congressman from New York, housing secretary and Republican nominee for vice president in 1996, died of cancer. He was 65.

In 2010, New York City police arrested Faisal Shahzad, a 30-year-old Pakistani-American who had boarded a plane scheduled to fly to Dubai after an attempted Times Square bombing. (He later pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced to life in prison.)

In 2011, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives won a parliamentary majority.

In 2013, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security ordered border agents to verify the validity of visas for all foreign students entering the country.

In 2014, favorite California Chrome ridden by Victor Espinoza won the Kentucky Derby.

Copyright 2015 by United Press International