On this date
In 1825, the Erie Canal opened in upstate New York, connecting Lake Erie and the Hudson River. In 1944, the World War II Battle of Leyte Gulf ended in a major Allied victory over Japanese forces. In 1949, President Harry S. Truman signed a measure raising the minimum wage from 40 to 75 cents an hour. In 1979, South Korean President Park Chung-hee was shot to death by the head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, Kim Jae-kyu.
In 1984, “Baby Fae,” a newborn with a severe heart defect, was given the heart of a baboon in an experimental transplant in Loma Linda, Calif. (Baby Fae lived 21 days with the animal heart.) In 1994, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel and Prime Minister Abdel Salam Majali of Jordan signed a peace treaty during a ceremony at the Israeli-Jordanian border attended by President Bill Clinton. In 2001, President George W. Bush signed the USA Patriot Act, giving authorities unprecedented ability to search, seize, detain or eavesdrop in their pursuit of possible terrorists. Ten years ago: U.S. military helicopters launched a rare attack on Syrian territory, killing eight people. Five years ago: A Phoenix man went on a rampage, shooting to death four members of a family who lived next door to him, along with their two dogs, before turning the gun on himself; authorities speculated that the incessant noise of barking dogs drove Michael Guzzo to kill. One year ago: At the request of the FBI and CIA, the president blocked the release of hundreds of records on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy while allowing 2,800 other files to come out.