Today in history

In 1569 the first lottery in England was held in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.

In 1770 Benjamin Franklin, in London, shipped the first rhubarb to America.

In 1805 the Michigan Territory was created.

In 1861 Alabama became the fourth state to withdraw from the Union.

In 1913 patrons of the National Automobile Show in New York City saw a new type of luxury car, the fourdoor sedan. It was a Hudson.

In 1923 French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr Valley when Germany failed to keep up its payments of World War I reparations.

In 1935 Amelia Earhart began an 18-hour trip from Honolulu to Oakland, Calif., that made her the first person to fly solo across any part of the Pacific Ocean.

In 1943 during World War II, the United States and Britain relinquished extraterritorial rights in China.

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In 1964 U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry issued the first government report saying that smoking may be

hazardous to one’s health.

In 1978 two Soviet cosmonauts aboard the Soyuz 27 capsule linked up with the Salyut 6 orbiting space station, where the Soyuz 26 capsule was already docked.

In 1979 the U.S. surgeon general said there was “overwhelming evidence” that smoking causes even more death and disease than originally believed.

In 1984 the Supreme Court reinstated a $10 million award to the family of Oklahoma nuclear worker Karen Silkwood, who died in a suspicious 1974 auto crash.