From the ArcaMax Publishing, History & Quotes Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/quotes/s-565672-872515
In 1900, Dr. Walter Reed and his medical team began a successful
campaign to wipe out yellow fever in the Panama Canal Zone.
In 1917, the first troops of the American Expeditionary Force reached
France in World War I.
In 1939, film censors approved "Gone With The Wind" but fined Producer
David O. Selznick $5,000 for objectionable language in Rhett Butler's
famous closing line to Scarlett O'Hara: "Frankly, my dear, I don't
give a damn."
In 1945, the U.N. Charter was signed by representatives of 50 nations.
Also in 1945, the FCC began development of commercial television by
allocating airwaves for 13 TV stations.
In 1959, U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower and Britain's Queen
Elizabeth II formally opened the St. Lawrence Seaway in Canada.
In 1974, the bar code, allowing for the electronic scanning of prices,
was used for the first time on a pack of gum at a supermarket in Troy,
Ohio.
In 1976, the CN Tower, the world's tallest freestanding structure
(1,815 feet, 5 inches), opened in Toronto.
In 1977, 42 people died in a county jail fire in Columbia, Tenn.
In 1990, U.S. President George H.W. Bush discarded his "no new taxes"
campaign pledge, saying "it is clear to me" taxes are needed as part
of deficit-reduction package.
In 1991, 120 people drowned after an Indonesian trawler and an
unidentified ship collided in the Straits of Malacca.
In 1992, U.S. Navy Secretary H. Lawrence Garrett resigned, accepting
responsibility for the "Tailhook" incident involving the harassment of
Navy women by naval aviators.
Also in 1992, Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates, the target of
public wrath for the Rodney King beating, resigned.
In 1993, in response to an Iraqi plot to assassinate former U.S.
President George H.W. Bush during a visit to Kuwait, two U.S. ships in
the Persian Gulf fired missiles at Iraq's intelligence complex. The
main headquarters building was badly damaged.
In 1995, an attempted assassination of Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak failed during his visit to Ethiopia.
In 2000, two rival groups of scientists announced they had deciphered
the genetic code, the human genome.
In 2002, the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that the
Pledge of Allegiance recited in schools was unconstitutional because
of the phrase "under God." The ruling was stayed pending appeal.
In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court gave a major boost to gay rights
advocates by striking down a Texas law forbidding sexual activity
between same-sex partners.
In 2005, six months after the Indian Ocean tsunami, the death toll
stood at 178,000 in 11 countries with another 50,000 people missing
and presumed dead.
In 2006, Israel put on a military show of strength in the Gaza Strip
following a bloody Palestinian militant raid on a military post and
kidnapping of a soldier.
In 2007, German prosecutors sought to try 13 U.S. intelligence agents
who allegedly kidnapped a German citizen in 2003. It's the second case
in Europe centered on the controversial U.S. "extraordinary rendition"
practice in which terror suspects arrested in one country can be
transported to another with fewer prisoner rights for questioning. A
trial of 26 CIA agents in Italy was reported on hold.
In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 5 to 4, that the Constitution
protects an individual's right to carry a gun for private use but
insisted that the ruling did nothing to alter the ban on gun ownership
by felons or the mentally ill or carrying a gun into such "sensitive"
areas as schools or government buildings.
Also in 2008, North Korea officials handed over to China a list of its
nuclear facilities. In exchange, the United States removed North Korea
from its list of countries that sponsor terrorism and lifted some
sanctions.