TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT 1948

Hours after declaring its independence, the new state of Israel was attacked by Transjordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.

ALSO ON THIS DATE 1862

President Abraham Lincoln signed an act establishing the Department of Agriculture.

1918

U.S. airmail began service between Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York.

1930

Registered nurse Ellen Church, the first airline stewardess, went on duty aboard an Oakland-to-Chicago flight operated by Boeing Air Transport, a forerunner of United Airlines.

1942

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a measure creating the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, whose members came to be known as WACs. Wartime gasoline rationing went into effect in 17Eastern states, limiting sales to three gallons a week for non-essential vehicles.

1954

The Fender Stratocaster guitar, created by Leo Fender, was officially released.

1963

Weight Watchers was incorporated in New York.

1968

Two days of tornado outbreaks began in 10 Midwestern and Southern states; twisters were blamed for 72 deaths, including 45 in Arkansas and 18 in Iowa.

1970

Just after midnight, Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green, two black students at Jackson State College in Mississippi, were killed as police opened fire during student protests.

1972

Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace was shot and left paralyzed while campaigning for president in Laurel, Maryland, by Arthur H. Bremer, who served 35years for attempted murder.