Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1690

The first paper money in America was issued by the colony of Massachusetts. The currency was used to pay soldiers fighting a war against Quebec.

1783

Spain recognized U.S. independence.

1809

The territory of Illinois was created.

1865

President Lincoln and Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens held a peace conference aboard a ship off the Virginia coast. The talks deadlocked over the issue of Southern autonomy.

1913

The 16th Amendment to the Constitution, providing for a federal income tax, was ratified.

1916

Canada's original parliament buildings, in Ottawa, burned down.

1917

The United States broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, which had announced a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.

1930

The chief justice of the United States, William Howard Taft, resigned for health reasons.

1988

The U.S. House of Representatives handed President Reagan a major defeat, rejecting his request for at least $36.25 million in aid to the Nicaraguan Contras.

1994

The space shuttle Discovery blasted off with a woman, Air Force Lt. Col. Eileen Collins, in the pilot's seat for the first time.

1998

Texas executed Karla Faye Tucker for the pickax killings of two people in 1983; she was the first woman executed in the United States since 1984.

1998

A U.S. Marine jet sliced through a ski gondola cable in Italy, sending the car's 20 occupants plunging 370 feet to their deaths. The jet's pilot was acquitted by a U.S. military tribunal of 20 counts of involuntary manslaughter.

2000

The Senate voted 89-4 to confirm Alan Greenspan for a fourth term as chairman of the Federal Reserve.

1924

The 28th president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, died in Washington at age 67.