TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT 1998

A federal judge sentenced Terry Nichols to life in prison for his role in the 1995bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

ALSO ON THIS DATE 1812

The Louisiana Territory was renamed the Missouri Territory, to avoid confusion with the recently admitted state of Louisiana. The U.S. House of Representatives approved, 79-49, a declaration of war against Britain.

1919

Congress approved the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing citizens the right to vote regardless of their gender, and sent it to the states for ratification.

1939

The German ocean liner MS St. Louis, carrying more than 900Jewish refugees from Germany, was turned away from the Florida coast by U.S. officials.

1940

During World War II, the Allied military evacuation of some 338,000 troops from Dunkirk, France, ended. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill declared: “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”

1942

The World War II Battle of Midway began, resulting in a decisive American victory against Japan and marking the turning point of the war in the Pacific.

1944

U-505, a German submarine, was captured by a U.S. Navy task group in the south Atlantic; it was the first such capture of an enemy vessel at sea by the U.S. Navy since the War of 1812. The U.S. Fifth Army began liberating Rome.

1985

The Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling striking down an Alabama law providing for a daily minute of silence in public schools.