This Day in History

1974 Philippe Petit performs a high wire act between the twin towers of the World Trade Center (417 m) in the air

1987 Lynne Cox becomes first person to swim from the United States to the Soviet Union, crossing the Bering Strait from Little Diomede Island in Alaska to Big Diomede in the Soviet Union

2004 The New National Party (NNP) announced its dissolution and merger with the ruling African National Congress (ANC). A NNP statement said that individual members of the NNP would be encouraged to join the ANC in their respective localities. The NNP would in future contest elections under the banner of the ANC