On this date in history:

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 1928, Chiang Kai-shek became chairman of the Republic of China. Following two civil wars, separated by a World War, Chiang Kai-shek and his Kuomintang party would head into exile in 1949 following defeat at the hands of the Communists.

In 1933, a United Airlines Boeing 247 is destroyed by sabotage, the first such proven case in the history of commercial aviation.

In 1956, no sign of compromise seen in Suez Canal dispute. Egypt had been pressing for a negotiated solution, consistent with Egyptian sovereignty, though there were no signs that the Egyptians or the British and French were ready to compromise.

In 1971, having been sold, dismantled and moved to the United States, London Bridge reopens in Lake Havasu City, Ariz.

In 1973, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigns in disgrace after pleading no contest to income tax evasion.

In 1985, movie legend Orson Welles, whose 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 1995, Israel freed about 900 Palestinian prisoners and pulled its troops out of four towns as the second phase of a peace plan was implemented on the West Bank.

In 1997, major tobacco companies agreed to a settlement in a class-action lawsuit by 60,000 flight attendants who said second-hand smoke made them ill. About a week earlier, tobacco executives admitted that tobacco causes lung cancer and other diseases.

In 2003, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Iranian lawyer Shurin Ebadi for her work in promoting democracy and human rights in Iran and beyond. She was the first Muslim woman to win the award.

In 2004, Superman actor Christopher Reeve, who became paralyzed after a horseback-riding accident nearly a decade earlier, died of cardiac arrest after undergoing treatment for a pressure wound.

In 2005, Angela Merkel became the first female chancellor of Germany after her Christian Democrats won the parliamentary election.

In 2013, Scott Carpenter, one of NASA's seven original Mercury astronauts, died in Denver at the age of 88. On May 24, 1962, Carpenter flew the Aurora 7 spacecraft through three revolutions of Earth, becoming the second American (after John Glenn) to make a manned orbital flight.

In 2014, the Nobel committee awarded the peace prize to Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi, children's rights activists. Yousafzai, the youngest Nobelist in history, became a household name after Taliban militants shot her in the head in Pakistan, bringing attention to her cause -- education for girls.

In 2017, Chris Hemsworth, Cate Blanchett, Tessa Thompson and Mark Ruffalo attended the Los Angeles premiere of Thor: Ragnarok, the third film in Thor series and part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise.

Copyright 2018 by United Press International