Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1469

Ferdinand of Aragon married Isabella of Castile. The marriage united all the dominions of Spain.

1685

King Louis XIV of France revoked the Edict of Nantes, which had established the legal toleration of France's Protestant population, the Huguenots.

1767

The boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania, the Mason-Dixon line, was agreed upon.

1842

Samuel Finley Breese Morse laid his first telegraph cable.

1860

British troops burned the Yuanmingyuan at the end of the Second Opium War.

1867

The United States took formal possession of Alaska from Russia. The land was purchased of a total of $7 million dollars (2 cents per acre).

1873

The first rules for intercollegiate football were drawn up by representatives from Rutgers, Yale, Columbia and Princeton Universities.

1892

The first long distance telephone line between Chicago and New York was formally opened.

1898

The American flag was raised in Puerto Rico shortly before Spain formally relinquished control of the island to the United States.

1929

The Judicial Committee of England's Privy Council ruled that women were to be considered as persons in Canada.

1943

The first broadcast of "Perry Mason" was presented on CBS Radio. The show went to TV in 1957.

1944

Soviet troops invaded Czechoslovakia during World War II.

1950

Connie Mack, the ''Grand Old Man'' of major league baseball, announced he was retiring after 50 seasons as manager of the Philadelphia Athletics.

1956

NFL commissioner Bert Bell disallowed the use of radio-equipped helmets by NFL quarterbacks.

1958

The first computer-arranged marriage took place on Art Linkletter's show.

1961

Henri Matiss' "Le Bateau" went on display at New York's Museum of Modern Art. It was discovered 46 days later that the painting had been hanging upside down.

1967

The American League granted permission for the A's to move to Oakland. Also, new franchises were awarded to Kansas City and Seattle.

1968

The United States Olympic Committee suspended two black athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, for giving a "black power" salute as a protest during a victory ceremony in Mexico City.

1969

The federal government banned artificial sweeteners known as cyclamates because of evidence they caused cancer in laboratory rats.

1970

Quebec's minister of labor was found strangled to death after eight days of being held captive by the Quebec Liberation Front (FLQ).

1971

After 34 years, the final issue of "Look" magazine was published.

1977

Reggie Jackson of the New York Yankees became only the second player to hit three home runs in a World Series game. Jackson's heroics led New York to an 8-4 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers, clinching the world championship.

1977

A German special forces team stormed a hijacked Lufthansa airliner and killed all four hijackers and freed 86 hostages. The Palestinian hijackers had demanded the release of members of the Red Army Faction.

1983

General Motors agreed to hire more women and minorities for five years as part of a settlement with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

1985

South African authorities hanged black activist Benjamin Moloise. Moloise had been convicted of murdering a police officer.

1989

Erich Honecker was ousted as leader of East Germany after 18 years in power; he was succeeded by Egon Krenz.

1989

The space shuttle Atlantis was launched on a mission that included the deployment of the Galileo space probe.

1990

Iraq made an offer to the world that it would sell oil for $21 a barrel. The price level was the same as it had been before the invasion of Kuwait.

1997

A monument honoring U.S. servicewomen, past and present, was dedicated at Arlington National Cemetery.

2001

In New York, four defendants were convicted for the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.

2001

It was announced that a New Jersey letter carrier and an employee in the office of CBS news anchorman Dan Rather's office had tested positive for skin anthrax.

1931

Inventor Thomas Alva Edison died in West Orange, N.J., at age 84.

1982

Former first lady Bess Truman died at her home in Independence, Mo., at age 97.