On This Day in:

1431 – In Paris, Henry VI of England was crowned King of France.

1732 – The original Covent Garden Theatre Royal was opened.

1787 – Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. constitution becoming the first of the United States.

1796 – John Adams was elected to be the second president of the United States.

1836 – Martin Van Buren was elected the eighth president of the United States.

1907 – At London's National Sporting Club, Eugene Corri became the first referee to officiate from inside a boxing ring.

1925 – Swimmer Johnny Weissmuller set a world record in the 150-yard freestyle with a time of 1 minute, 25 and 2/5 seconds. He went on to play 'Tarzan' in several movies.

1926 – The gas operated refrigerator was patented by The Electrolux Servel Corporation.

1946 – A fire at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta killed 119 people. It was America's worst hotel fire disaster. The hotel founder, W. Frank Winecoff, was also killed in the fire.

1971 – Libya announced the nationalization of British Petroleum's assets.

1972 – Apollo 17 was launched at Cape Canaveral. It was the last U.S. moon mission.

1972 – Imelda Marcos, wife of Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos, was stabbed and seriously wounded by an assailant. The man was then shot and killed by her bodyguards.

1974 – President Makarios returned to Cyprus after five months in exile.

1982 – Charlie Brooks Junior, a convicted murderer, became the first prisoner in the U.S. to be executed by injection, at a prison in Huntsville, TX.

1983 – Madrid, Spain, an Aviaco DC-9 collided on a runway with an Iberia Air Lines Boeing 727 that was accelerating for takeoff. The collision resulted in the death of all

42 people aboard the DC-9 and 51 on the Iberia jet.

1987 – Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev set foot on American soil for the first time.

He had come to the U.S. for a Washington summit with U.S. President Reagan.

1987 – 43 people were killed when a gunman opened fire on a fellow passenger and the two pilots aboard a Pacific Southwest Airlines jetliner.

1988 – An estimated 25,000 people were killed when a major earthquake hit northern Armenia in the Soviet Union. The quake measured 6.9 on the Richter Scale.

1988 – Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev announced the reduction of the number of Soviet military troops by half a million.