On this date in history:

In 1845, the Congress of the Republic of Texas agreed to annexation by the United States.

In 1865, the last Confederate holdouts formally surrendered in the Oklahoma Territory.

In 1894, the International Olympic Committee was founded in Paris.

In 1933, Japanese Emperor Hirohito, in an interview with Roy Howard of United Press, stressed the importance of friendship with the United States.

In 1947, the U.S. Congress enacted the Taft-Hartley labor act over the veto of President Harry Truman. The law limits the power of labor unions.

In 1956, Gamel Abdel Nasser was elected first president of the Republic of Egypt.

In 1985, Air India Flight 182, flying from Montreal to London, was brought down by a terrorist bomb off the coast of Ireland, killing all 329 people aboard.

In 1991, the Group of Seven industrialized democracies agreed to offer the Soviet Union associate membership in the International Monetary Fund.

In 1993, John Bobbitt made headlines when his wife, Lorena Bobbitt, cut off his penis while he slept. She testified she did so because he sexually and emotionally abused her during four-year marriage. A jury found her not guilty by reason of insanity.

In 2010, U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal resigned as commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan after he and senior aides made disparaging remarks in a magazine interview about administration officials. President Barack Obama named Gen. David Petraeus as McChrystal's replacement.

In 2013, daredevil Nik Wallenda walked on a 2-inch thick cable across the Little Colorado River Gorge near the Grand Canyon in Arizona -- 1,500 feet above the gorge -- in just under 23 minutes.

In 2014, the World Health Organization said 350 Ebola virus deaths had been reported since March in West Africa. A doctor called it an epidemic out of control.

In 2018, 12 members of a teenage soccer team and their coach became lost and trapped inside a flooded cave in northern Thailand. They were extricated 18 days later in a rescue effort that left one former Thai Navy SEAL dead.

In 2021, Britney Spears asked a California judge to end her court-ordered conservatorship without requiring her to clear a health evaluation.

Copyright 2022 by United Press International