[ T O D A Y I N H I S T O R Y ] On this day in . . . • 1777, after 16 months of debate the Continental Congress approves the Articles of Confederation • 1854, in Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is given the necessary royal concession • 1859, the first modern revival of the Olympic Games takes place in Athens, Greece • 1864, during the Civil War: Union General William Tecumseh Sherman burns Atlanta, Georgia and starts Shermans March to the Sea • 1867, the first stock ticker is unveiled in New York City. The advent of the ticker ultimately revolutionized the stock market by making up-to-the-minute prices available to investors around the country. Prior to this development, information from the New York Stock Exchange, which has been around since 1792, traveled by mail or messenger • 1920, first assembly of the League of Nations is held in Geneva • 1939, in Washington, D.C., US President Franklin D. Roosevelt lays the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial • 1957, in a long and rambling interview with an American reporter, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev claims that the Soviet Union has missile superiority over the United States and challenges America to a missile shooting match to prove his assertion. The interview further fueled fears in the United States that the nation was falling perilously behind the Soviets in the arms race • 1959, four members of the Herbert Clutter Family are murdered at their farm outside Holcomb, Kansas. The crime is chronicled in whats considered the first non-fiction novel, In Cold Blood by author Truman Capote • 1965 at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, 28-year-old Californian Craig Breedlove sets a new land-speed record -- 600.601 miles per hour -- in his car, the Spirit of America, which cost $250,000 and is powered by a surplus engine from a Navy jet • 1971, Intel releases worlds first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the 4004 • 1988, an independent State of Palestine is proclaimed by the Palestinian National Council. This must be what commentators and journalists mean when they refer to Judea and Samaria as Palestine. • 2001, President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to resolve their dispute over U.S. missile shield plans but pledged to fight terrorism and deepen U.S.-Russian ties as their summit, which began at the White House before shifting to Bushs Texas ranch, came to a close • 2005, baseball players and owners agreed on a tougher steroids-testing policy • 2006, O.J. Simpson caused an uproar with plans for a TV interview and book titled If I Did It, in which Simpson describes how he would have committed the 1994 slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. (The project was scrapped after an outcry condemning it as revolting and exploitive.) • 2010, a House ethics committee panel began closed-door deliberations on 13 counts of alleged financial and fundraising misconduct by U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., who walked out of the proceeding after pleading unsuccessfully for more time to raise money for a lawyer. (Rangel was convicted the next day of 11 rules violations.) • 2012, The Justice Department announced that BP had agreed to plead guilty to a raft of charges in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill pay a record $4.5 billion, including nearly $1.3 billion in criminal fines. The settlement came 2 1/2 years after the fiery drilling-rig explosion killed 11 workers and touched off the nations largest offshore oil spill. ALSO: Turkish Foreign Minister Agmet Davutoglu announced Turkey had joined France and several Arab states in officially recognizing a coalition of rebels as legitimate leaders in war-torn Syria.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Nov 2013 01:22:34 +0000
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