Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1556

An earthquake in Shanxi Province, China, was thought to have killed some 830,000 people.

1789

Georgetown University was established in present-day Washington, D.C.

1845

Congress decided all national elections would be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

1849

English-born Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in America to receive medical degree, from the Medical Institution of Geneva, N.Y.

1907

Charles Curtis, the first Native American to serve in the United States Senate, begins his term. He later resigns to become President Herbert Hoover's vice president.

1918

The Soviet government officially severed relations with the Orthodox Church.

1920

The Dutch government refused demands from the victorious Allies to hand over the ex-kaiser of Germany.

1932

New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.

1937

Seventeen people went on trial in Moscow during Josef Stalin's "Great Purge."

1950

The Israeli Knesset approved a resolution proclaiming Jerusalem the capital of Israel.

1960

Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard and U.S. Navy lieutenant Don Walsh in the bathyscaphe Trieste descend to the bottom of Challenger Deep (10,915 m/35,810 ft), setting a new undersea record.

1964

The 24th amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified, eliminating poll taxes for voting in federal elections.

1968

North Korea seized the U.S. Navy ship Pueblo, charging it had intruded into the communist nation's territorial waters on a spying mission. The crew was released 11 months later.

1973

President Nixon announced over nationwide television an accord had been reached to end the Vietnam War.

1975

The hit comedy Barney Miller premieres on ABC.

1977

The ABC TV mini-series "Roots," based on the Alex Haley novel, began a record-breaking eight-night broadcast on television.

1978

Sweden banned aerosol sprays because of damage to environment; it was the first country to do so.

1985

Debate in Britain's House of Lords was carried live on television for the first time.

1989

Hundreds of people are feared dead after a powerful earthquake strikes the Soviet Central Asian republic of Tajikistan.

1991

After some 12,000 sorties in the Gulf War, Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of theJoint Chiefs of Staff, said allied forces had achieved air superiority, andwould focus air fire on Iraqi ground forces around Kuwait.

1997

Fighting scandal allegations involving Monica Lewinsky, President Clinton assured his Cabinet that he was innocent.

1997

A judge in Fairfax, Va., sentenced Mir Aimal Kasi to death for an assault rifle attack outside CIA headquarters in 1993 that killed two men and wounded three other people.

2002

Daniel Pearl, a reporter working in Pakistan for The Wall Street Journal, was reported missing after he failed to return from a meeting with sources the previous day.

2006

Stephen Harper's Conservative Party wins the most seats in the Canadian federal election becoming the 22nd Prime Minister with a minority government.

1737

John Hancock, patriot and statesman.

1832

Édouard Manet, French impressionist painter.

1919

Ernie Kovacs, American comedian, television pioneer.

1928

Jeanne Moreau, French theater and motion-picture actor.

1989

Salvador Dalí, Spanish painter, writer, and member of the surrealist movement, dies in Figueras, Spain, at the age of 84.

2004

Bob Keeshan, American television personality "Captain Kangaroo."

2005

Johnny Carson, American television talk show host.