TODAY IN HISTORY

In 1648,

the Peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years War and effectively destroyed the Holy Roman Empire.

In 1861,

the first transcontinental telegraph message was sent by Chief Justice Stephen J. Field of California from San Francisco to President Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D.C., over a line built by the Western Union Telegraph Co.

In 1931,

the George Washington Bridge, connecting New York and New Jersey, was officially dedicated (it opened to traffic the next day).

In 1939,

nylon stockings were sold publicly for the first time, in Wilmington, Delaware.

In 1940,

the 40-hour work week took effect under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

In 1945,

the United Nations officially came into existence as its charter took effect.

In 1952,

Republican presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower declared in Detroit, “I shall go to Korea” as he promised to end the conflict. (He made the visit over a month later.)

In 1962,

a naval quarantine of Cuba ordered by President John F. Kennedy went into effect during the missile crisis.

In 1980,

the merchant freighter SS Poet departed Philadelphia, bound for Port Said, Egypt, with a crew of 34 and a cargo of grain; it disappeared en route and has not been heard from since.

In 1989,

former TV evangelist Jim Bakker was sentenced by a judge in Charlotte, N.C., to 45 years in prison for fraud and conspiracy. (The sentence was later reduced to eight years; it was further reduced to four for good behavior.)

In 2005,

civil rights icon Rosa Parks died in Detroit at age 92.

In 2017,

Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona announced that he would not seek re-election in 2018.