TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1964

Muhammad Ali became world heavyweight boxing champion as he defeated Sonny Liston in Miami Beach.

1793

President George Washington held the first Cabinet meeting on record at his Mount Vernon home; attending were Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of War Henry Knox and Attorney General Edmund Randolph.

1836

Inventor Samuel Colt patented his revolver.

1862

Nashville, Tennessee, became the first Confederate state capital to be occupied by the North during the Civil War.

1901

United States Steel Corp. was incorporated by J.P. Morgan.

1913

The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving Congress the power to levy and collect income taxes, was declared in effect by Secretary of State Philander Chase Knox.

1954

Gamal Abdel Nasser became Egypt’s prime minister after the country’s president, Mohammed Naguib, was effectively ousted in a coup.

1964

Eastern Airlines Flight 304, a DC-8, crashed shortly after taking off from New Orleans International Airport, killing all 58on board.

1986

President Ferdinand Marcos fled the Philippines after 20 years of rule in the wake of a tainted election; Corazon Aquino assumed the presidency.

1991

During the Persian Gulf War, 28Americans were killed when an Iraqi Scud missile hit a U.S. barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

2007

“The Departed” won best picture at the Academy Awards; its director, Martin Scorsese, won an Oscar on his sixth nomination.