Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1784

A U.S. merchant ship, the "Empress of China," left New York City for the Far East.

1819

Spain ceded Florida to the United States.

1865

Tennessee adopted a new constitution abolishing slavery.

1879

Frank Winfield Woolworth opened a five-cent store in Utica, N.Y.

1889

President Cleveland signed a bill to admit the Dakotas, Montana and Washington state to the Union.

1892

"Lady Windermere's Fan," by Oscar Wilde, was first performed, at London's St. James' Theater.

1924

Calvin Coolidge delivered the first presidential radio broadcast from the White House.

1973

The United States and Communist China agreed to establish liaison offices.

1980

In a stunning upset, the United States Olympic hockey team defeated the Soviets at Lake Placid, N.Y., 4-to-3. (The U.S. team went on to win the gold medal.)

1990

Former President Reagan's videotaped testimony for the trial of former national security adviser John Poindexter was released in Washington; in his deposition, Reagan said he never had "any inkling" his aides were secretly arming the Nicaraguan Contras.

1994

The Justice Department charged 31-year CIA veteran Aldrich Ames and his wife, Rosario, with selling national security secrets to the Soviet Union. (Ames was later sentenced to life in prison; his wife received a 5-year term.)

2001

A U.N. war crimes tribunal convicted three Bosnian Serbs on charges of rape and torture in the first case of wartime sexual enslavement to go before an international court.

2006

Insurgents destroyed the golden dome of one of Iraq's holiest Shiite shrines, the Askariya mosque in Samarra, setting off a spasm of sectarian violence.

1732

George Washington, American general and first president of U.S.

1778

Rembrandt Peale, American painter, writer and portraitist.

1819

James Russell Lowell, American poet, critic, essayist and diplomat.

1892

Edna St. Vincent Millay, American poet and dramatist.

1892

David Dubinsky, Russian-born American labor leader

1918

Don Pardo, TV announcer.

1950

Julius Erving, Basketball Hall of Famer.

1965

Pat Lafontaine, Hockey Hall of Famer.

1972

Michael Chang, Tennis Hall of Famer.

1987

Pop artist Andy Warhol died in a New York City hospital at age 58.

1998

Abraham A. Ribicoff, the former Connecticut governor and senator who served as President Kennedy's secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, died in Riverdale, N.Y., at age 87.