Today in history
In 1797 French balloonist Andre-Jacques Garnerin made the first parachute descent, landing safely from a height of about 3,000 feet.
In 1836 Sam Houston was inaugurated as the first constitutionally elected president of the Republic of Texas.
In 1845 the first known baseball box score is published in the New York Morning News a month after the first set of rules were written by Alexander Cartwright.
In 1907 a run on a New York bank touched off what later became known as the Panic of 1907.
In 1920 Timothy Leary, the psychologist, writer and advocate of psychedelic drugs, was born in Springfield, Mass.
In 1934 bank robber Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd was shot to death by federal agents at a farm in East Liverpool, Ohio.
In 1954 West Germany joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
In 1962 President John F. Kennedy ordered air and naval forces to quarantine Cuba after concluding that Soviet missile bases were being built on the island.
In 1968 Apollo 7 returned safely, splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean.
In 1975 the Cincinnati Reds won their first World Series in 35 years, defeating the Boston Red Sox 4-3 in the final game. In 1979 the U.S. government allowed the deposed Shah of Iran to travel to New York for medical treatment — a decision that precipitated the Iran hostage crisis.
In 1981 the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization was decertified by the federal government because of the union’s strike two months earlier.
In 1982 a federal appeals court in Washington said laws that empower Congress to veto federal agency rules are unconstitutional.
In 1984, the day after their debate in Missouri, Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale called President Ronald Reagan the “most uninformed president in modern history” while Reagan said Mondale believed “a weaker America is a safer America.” In 1985 Soviet officials warned that the Kremlin was prepared to develop its own space-based defense system if the U.S. did not abandon its “Star Wars” program.
In 1990 President George H.W. Bush vetoed major civil-rights legislation, arguing that the measure would force employers to adopt hiring quotas. (The veto was upheld.)
In 1991 the European Community and the European Free Trade Association concluded a landmark accord to create a free-trade zone of 19 nations by 1993.
In 1996 General Motors settled a three-week strike with its workers in Canada, resolving a walkout that had idled more than 46,000 workers across North America.
In 1998 the government announced one of the biggest toy recalls ever, advising parents to remove the batteries from their children’s “Power Wheels” cars and trucks, made by FisherPrice, because of faulty wiring that could cause them to erupt into flames.
In 2000 Arab leaders meeting in Egypt wrapped up a two-day summit on IsraeliPalestinian violence with a declaration that stopped short of an outright call for cutting ties with Israel.
In 2002 a bus driver was shot to death in Aspen Hill, Md., in what would be the 13th and final attack linked by authorities to the Washington-area sniper attacks. Also in 2002 former CIA Director Richard Helms died in Washington; he was 89.
In 2003 IRL racer Tony Renna died after crashing at close to 220 mph during a test drive at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway; he was 26.
In 2005 a record 22nd tropical storm of the season formed about 125 miles off the Dominican Republic; because the annual list of storm names had already been exhausted, forecasters called the new system Tropical Storm Alpha.
In 2012 the International Cycling Union stripped Lance Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles. (He later resigned from the board of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, known as Livestrong.)
In 2014 a gunman killed Canadian soldier Cpl. Nathan Cirillor, 24, a reservist, at the National War Memorial in Ottawa, then stormed Parliament, where he was shot to death.