On This Day in:

1775 – During the American Revolution, U.S. forces captured Montreal.

1789 – Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to a friend in which he said, 'In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.'

1805 – Johann George Lehner, a Viennese butcher, invented a recipe and called it the 'frankfurter.'

832 – The first streetcar went into operation in New York City, NY. The vehicle was horse-drawn and had room for 30 people.

1851 – Herman Melville's novel 'Moby Dick' was first published in the U.S.

1881 – Charles J. Guiteau's trial began for the assassination of U.S. President Garfield. Guiteau was convicted and hanged the following year.

1889 – New York World reporter Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) began an attempt to surpass the fictitious journey of Jules Verne's Phileas Fogg by traveling around the world in less than 80 days. Bly finished the journey the following January in 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes.

1922 – The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) began domestic radio service.

1927 – The Holland Tunnel opened to the public, providing access between New York City and New Jersey beneath the Hudson River.

1940 – The Walt Disney movie 'Fantasia' had its world premiere at New York's Broadway Theater.

1942 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a measure lowering the minimum draft age from 21 to 18.

1956 – The U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws calling for racial segregation on public buses.

1956 – The USSR crushed the Hungarian uprising.

1968 – Yale University announced it was going co-educational.

1969 – Apollo 12 blasted off for the moon from Cape Kennedy, FL.

1969 – During the Vietnam War, Major General Bruno Arthur Hochmuth, commander

Vietnam by enemy fire.

1971 – The U.S. spacecraft Mariner 9 became the first spacecraft to orbit Mars.

1972 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above the 1,000 (1,003.16) level for the first time.

1972 – Blue Ribbon Sports became Nike.

1977 – The comic strip 'Li'l Abner' by Al Capp appeared in newspapers for the last time.

1982 – The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, DC.

1984 – A libel suit against Time, Inc. by former Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon went to trial in New York.