Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1792

Highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier became the first person under French law to be executed by guillotine.

1859

Ground was broken for the Suez Canal.

1898

The United States declared war on Spain.

1901

New York became the first state to require automobile license plates; the fee was $1.

1915

During World War I, Allied soldiers invaded the Gallipoli Peninsula in an unsuccessful attempt to take the Ottoman Turkish Empire out of the war.

1945

Delegates from some 50 countries met in San Francisco to organize the United Nations.

1945

During World War II, United States and Soviet forces linked up on the Elbe River, in central Europe, a meeting that dramatized the collapse of Nazi Germany.

1959

The St. Lawrence Seaway opened to shipping.

1983

Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov invited Samantha Smith to visit his country after receiving a letter in which the Manchester, Maine, schoolgirl expressed fears about nuclear war.

1983

The Pioneer 10 spacecraft crossed Pluto's orbit, speeding on its endless voyage through the Milky Way.

1990

Violeta Barrios de Chamorro was inaugurated as president of Nicaragua, ending 11 years of leftist Sandinista rule.

1992

Islamic forces in Afghanistan took control of most of the capital of Kabul following the collapse of the Communist government.

1998

Whitewater prosecutors questioned first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton on videotape about her work as a private lawyer for the failed savings and loan at the center of the investigation.

1874

Radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi was born in Bologna, Italy.

1995

Actress Ginger Rogers died in Rancho Mirage, Calif., at age 83.