TODAY IN HISTORY

On This Day in:

1642 – The first commencement at Harvard College, in Cambridge, MA, was held.

1779 – John Paul Jones, commander of the American warship Bon Homme, was quoted as saying “I have not yet begun to fight!”

1780 – John Andre, a British spy, was captured with papers revealing that Benedict Arnold was going to surrender West Point, NY, to the British.

1806 – The Corps of Discovery, the Lewis and Clark expedition, reached St. Louis, MO, and ended the trip to the Pacific Northwest.

1838 – Victoria Chaflin Woodhull was born. She became the first female candidate for the U.S. Presidency.

1845 – The Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York was formed by Alexander Joy Cartwright. It was the first baseball team in America.

1846 – Astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle discovered the planet Neptune.

1912 – “Keystone Comedy” by Mack Sennett was released.

1930 – Flashbulbs were patented by Johannes Ostermeier.

1951 – The first transcontinental telecast was received on the west coast. The show “Crusade for Freedom” was broadcast by CBS-TV from New York.

1952 – The first Pay Television sporting event took place. The Marciano-Walcott fight was seen in 49 theaters in 31 cities.

1952 – Richard Nixon gave his “Checkers Speech”. At the time he was a candidate for U.S. vice-president.

1953 – “The Robe” premiered in Hollywood a week after its premiere in New York. The 20th Century Fox movie had been filmed using the Cinemascope wide screen process.

1957 – Nine black students withdrew from Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas due to the white mob outside.

1962 – New York’s Philharmonic Hall opened. It was the first unit of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The hall was later renamed the Avery Fisher Hall.

1962 – “The Jetsons” premiered on ABC-TV. It was the first program on the network to be carried in color.

1964 – The new ceiling painting of the Paris Opera house was unveiled. The work was done by Russian-born artist Marc Chagall.

1973 – Overthrown Argentine president Juan Peron was returned to power. He had been overthrown in 1955. His wife, Eva Duarte, was the subject of the musical “Evita.”

1981 – The Reagan administration announced its plans for what became known as Radio Marti.

1986 – Japanese newspapers quoted Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone as saying that minorities lowered the “intelligence level” of America.

1990 – Iraq publicly threatened to destroy Middle East oil fields and to attack Israel if any nation tried to force it from Kuwait.

1991 – U.N. weapons inspectors find documents detailing Iraq’s secret nuclear weapons program. The find in Baghdad triggered a standoff with authorities in Iraq.

1993 – The Israeli parliament ratified the Israel-PLO accord.

1993 – Blacks were allowed a role in the South African government after a parliamentary vote.

1998 – Jamie Lee Curtis received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.