On this date

In 1804, Lt. Stephen Decatur led a raid into Tripoli Harbor to burn the U.S. Navy frigate Philadelphia, which had been taken by pirates during the First Barbary War.

In 1862, the Civil War Battle of Fort Donelson in Tennessee ended as about 12,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered; Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s victory earned him the moniker “Unconditional Surrender Grant.”

In 1868, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks was organized in New York City.

In 1945, American troops landed on the island of Corregidor in the Philippines during World War II.

In 1948, NBC TV began airing its first nightly newscast, “The Camel Newsreel Theatre,” which consisted of Fox Movietone newsreels.

In 1968, the nation’s first 911 emergency telephone system was inaugurated in Haleyville, Ala., as the speaker of the Alabama House, Rankin Fite, placed a call from the mayor’s office in City Hall to a red telephone at the police station (also located in City Hall) that was answered by U.S. Rep. Tom Bevill.

In 2001, The United States and Britain staged air strikes against radar stations and air defense command centers in Iraq.

Ten years ago: In Stamford, Conn., a 200-pound chimpanzee named Travis went berserk, severely mauling its owner’s friend, Charla Nash; Travis was shot dead by police.

Five years ago: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, during a visit to Indonesia, called climate change perhaps the “most fearsome” destructive weapon and compared those who denied its existence or questioned its causes to people who insist the Earth is flat.

One year ago: In an indictment, special counsel Robert Mueller accused 13 Russians of a plot to disrupt the 2016 U.S. presidential election with a huge, hidden social media trolling campaign aimed in part at helping Donald Trump.