TODAY IN HISTORY

In 1811: Sen. Timothy Pickering, a Federalist from Massachusetts, became the first member of the U.S. Senate to be censured after he’d improperly revealed the contents of an executive document. In 1900: Secretary of State John Hay announced the “Open Door Policy” to facilitate trade with China. In 1921: religious services were broadcast on radio for the first time as KDKA in Pittsburgh aired the regular Sunday service of the city’s Calvary Episcopal Church. In 1935: Bruno Hauptmann went on trial in Flemington, New Jersey, on charges of kidnapping and murdering the 20-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. (Hauptmann was found guilty, and executed.) In 1942: the Philippine capital of Manila was captured by Japanese forces during World War II. In 1959: the Soviet Union launched its space probe Luna 1, the first manmade object to fly past the moon, its apparent intended target. In 1960: Sen. John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts launched his successful bid for the presidency. In 1974: President Richard M. Nixon signed legislation requiring states to limit highway speeds to 55 miles an hour. (Federal speed limits were abolished in 1995). In 1981: police in Sheffield, England, arrested Peter Sutcliffe, who confessed to being the “Yorkshire Ripper,” the serial killer of 13 women. In 1991: Sharon Pratt (Dixon) was sworn in as mayor of Washington, D.C., becoming the first black woman to head a city of Washington’s size and prominence. In 2006: 12 miners died in a methane gas explosion at the Sago Mine in West Virginia, West Virginia, but one miner, Randal McCloy Jr., was eventually rescued.