On this date
In 1914, transcontinental telephone service in the U.S. became operational with the first test conversation between New York and San Francisco.
In 1921, Adolf Hitler became the leader (“fuehrer”) of the National Socialist German Workers Party.
In 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, creating NASA.
In 1967, an accidental rocket launch on the deck of the supercarrier USS Forrestal in the Gulf of Tonkin resulted in a fire and explosions that killed 134 servicemen. (Among the survivors was future Arizona Sen. John McCain, then a U.S. Navy lieutenant commander.)
In 1968, Pope Paul VI reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church’s stance against artificial birth control.
In 1975, President Gerald R. Ford became the first U.S. president to visit the site of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz in Poland.
In 1994, abortion opponent Paul Hill shot and killed Dr. John Bayard Britton and Britton’s bodyguard, James H. Barrett, outside the Ladies Center clinic in Pensacola, Florida. (Hill was executed in Sept. 2003.)
Ten years ago: Microsoft and Yahoo announced a 10-year Internet search partnership under which Bing would replace Yahoo Search, as the companies agreed to take on the dominance of Google in the online advertising market.
Five years ago: After the downing of an airliner over rebel-held eastern Ukraine, the European Union approved tougher economic sanctions against Russia, including an arms embargo and restrictions on state-owned banks; President Barack Obama followed with an expansion of U.S. penalties targeting key sectors of Russia’s economy.
One year ago: President Donald Trump tweeted that he was willing to see the government shut down over border security issues, including money for a U.S.-Mexico border wall.