TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

July 29, 1981

Britain’s Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer in a glittering ceremony at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. ALSO ON THIS DATE

1914

Transcontinental telephone service in the U.S. became operational with the first test conversation between New York and San Francisco. Massachusetts’ Cape Cod Canal, offering a shortcut across the base of the peninsula, was officially opened to shipping traffic.

1921

Adolf Hitler became the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party.

1958

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, creating NASA.

1965

The Beatles’ second feature film, “Help!,” had its world premiere in London.

1967

An accidental rocket launch on the deck of the supercarrier USS Forrestal in the Gulf of Tonkin resulted in a fire and explosions that killed 134 servicemen.

1968

Pope Paul the Sixth reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church’s stance against artificial methods of birth control.

1975

President Gerald R. Ford became the first U.S. president to visit the site of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz in Poland.

1980

A state funeral was held in Cairo, Egypt, for the deposed Shah of Iran, who had died two days earlier at age 60.

1994

Abortion opponent Paul Hill shot and killed Dr. John Bayard Britton and Britton’s bodyguard, James H. Barrett, outside the Ladies Center clinic in Pensacola, Florida.

1997

Members of Congress from both parties embraced compromise legislation designed to balance the budget while cutting taxes.