TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1792

Congress passed the Coinage Act, which authorized establishment of the U.S. Mint.

ALSO ON THIS DATE

1865

Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, because of advancing Union forces.

1917

President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war against Germany, saying, “The world must be made safe for democracy.”

1932

Aviator Charles A. Lindbergh and John F. Condon went to a cemetery in The Bronx, New York, where Condon turned over $50,000to a man in exchange for Lindbergh’s kidnapped son.

1968

“2001: A Space Odyssey,” the groundbreaking sciencefiction film epic produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood, had its world premiere in Washington, D.C.

1980

President Jimmy Carter signed into law a windfall profits tax on the oil industry.

1982

Several thousand troops from Argentina seized the disputed Falkland Islands, located in the south Atlantic, from Britain.

1986

Four American passengers, including an 8-month-old girl, her mother and grandmother, were killed when a terrorist bomb exploded aboard a TWA jetliner en route from Rome to Athens, Greece.

2002

Israel seized control of Bethlehem; Palestinian gunmen forced their way into the Church of the Nativity, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, where they began a 39-day standoff.

2003

During the Iraq War, American forces fought their way to within sight of the Baghdad skyline.