Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1764

The city of St. Louis was established.

1879

President Hayes signed a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court.

1898

The U.S. battleship Maine blew up in Havana Harbor, killing 260 crew members and escalating tensions with Spain.

1933

President-elect Roosevelt escaped an assassination attempt in Miami that claimed the life of Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak.

1942

The British colony of Singapore surrendered to the Japanese during World War II.

1961

Seventy-three people, including 18 figure skaters from the United States, were killed in the crash of a Boeing 707 in Belgium. The skaters were en route to a world meet in Czechoslovakia.

1965

Canada's new maple leaf flag was unfurled in ceremonies in Ottawa.

1982

A huge oil-drilling rig, the Ocean Ranger, sank off the coast of Newfoundland during a fierce storm, killing 84 men.

1989

The Soviet Union announced that the last of its troops had left Afghanistan, after more than nine years of military intervention.

1992

Benjamin L. Hooks announced plans to retire as executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

1995

The FBI arrested Kevin Mitnick, its ''most wanted hacker,'' and charged him with cracking security in some of the nation's most protected computers. (Mitnick was released last month after serving five years behind bars.)

1564

Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa.

1820

American suffragist Susan B. Anthony was born in Adams, Mass.