Today in history

In 1787 New Jersey became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

In 1865 the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery, was declared in effect.

In 1892 Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” publicly premiered in St. Petersburg, Russia.

In 1940 Adolf Hitler signed a secret directive ordering preparations for a Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. Operation Barbarossa

was launched in June 1941.

In 1944 in a pair of rulings, the Supreme Court upheld the wartime relocation of Japanese-Americans but also said undeniably loyal Americans of Japanese ancestry could not be detained.

In 1956 Japan was admitted to the United Nations.

In 1957 the Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, the first civilian nuclear facility to generate electricity in the United States, went online.

In 1969 Britain’s Parliament abolished the death penalty for murder.

In 1987 Ivan Boesky was sentenced to three years in prison for plotting Wall Street’s biggest insider-trading scandal to date.

In 1994 former President Jimmy Carter arrived in Bosnia-Herzegovina on a private mission to seek an end to 32 months of war.

In 1998 the House began debate on four articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton.

In 1999 French film director Robert Bresson died in Paris.