On This Day in:

1789 – The U.S. Congress authorized the office of Postmaster General.

1792 – The French Republic was proclaimed.

1862 – U.S. President Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. It stated that all slaves held within rebel states would be free as of January 1, 1863.

1903 – Italo Marchiony was granted a patent for the ice cream cone.

1914 – Three British cruisers were sunk by one German submarine in the North Sea. 1,400 British sailors were killed. This event alerted the British to the effectiveness of the submarine.

1927 – In Chicago, IL, Gene Tunney successfully defended his heavyweight boxing title against Jack Dempsey in the famous 'long-count' fight.

1949 – The Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb successfully.

1955 – Commercial television began in Great Britain. The rules said that only six minutes of ads were allowed each hour and there was no Sunday morning TV permitted.

1961 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy signed a congressional act that established the Peace Corps.

1964 – 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' debuted on NBC-TV.

1966 – The U.S. lunar probe Surveyor 2 crashed into the moon.

1969 – Willie Mays hit his 600th career home run.

1980 – A border conflict between Iran and Iraq developed into a full-scale war.

1986 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan addressed the U.N.

General Assembly and voiced a new hope for arms control. He also criticized the Soviet Union for arresting U.S. journalist Nicholas Daniloff.

1988 – Canada's government apologized for the internment of Japanese-Canadian's during World War II. They also promised compensation.

1990 – Saudi Arabia expelled most of the Yememin and Jordanian envoys in Riyadh. The Saudi accusations were unspecific.

1991 – An article in the London newspaper 'The Mail' revealed that John Cairncross admitted to being the 'fifth man' in the Soviet Union's British spy ring.

1992 – The U.N. General Assembly expelled Yugoslavia for its role in the war between Bosnia and Herzegovina.

1994 – The U.S. upgraded its military control in Haiti.

1998 – The U.S. and Russia signed two agreements. One was to privatize Russia's nuclear program and the other was to stop plutonium stockpiles and nuclear scientists from leaving the country.

1998 – U.S. President Clinton addressed the United Nations and told world leaders to 'end all nuclear tests for all time'. He then sent the long-delayed global test-ban treaty to the U.S. Senate.

1998 – Keely Smith received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Tommy Lasorda 1927 – Baseball manager Joni James (Joan Carmello Babbo) 1930 David Coverdale (Deep Purple, Whitesnake) 1951 Shari Belafonte-Harper 1954 – Actress Debby Boone 1956 – Singer June Forester (The Forester Sisters) 1956 Johnette Napolitano (Concrete Blond) 1957 Nick Cave 1957 – Singer Andrea Bocelli 1958 – Opera singer Joan Jett 1960 – Rock Musician Scott Baio 1961 – Actor ('Happy Days')