TODAY INHISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT 2002

President George W. Bush signed legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security, and appointed Tom Ridge to be its head.

ALSO ON THIS DATE 1783

The British evacuated New York during the Revolutionary War.

1915

A newversion of the Ku Klux Klan, targeting blacks, Jews, Catholics and immigrants, was founded by William Joseph Simmons.

1947

Movie studio executives meeting in New York agreed to blacklist the “Hollywood Ten” who’d been cited for contempt of Congress the day before.

1961

The first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise, was commissioned.

1963

The body of President John F. Kennedy was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery; his widow, Jacqueline, lighted an “eternal flame” at the gravesite.

1986

The Iran-Contra affair erupted as President Ronald Reagan and Attorney General Edwin Meese revealed that profits from secret arms sales to Iran had been diverted to Nicaraguan rebels.

1999

Elian Gonzalez, a 5-year-old Cuban boy, was rescued by a pair of sport fishermen off the coast of Florida, setting off an international custody battle.

2001

As the war in Afghanistan entered its eighth week, CIA officer Johnny “Mike” Spann was killed during a prison uprising in Mazar-e-Sharif, becoming America’s first combat casualty of the conflict.

2009

Toyota said it would replace the gas pedals on 4million vehicles in the United States because the pedals could get stuck in the floor mats and cause sudden acceleration.