Today in History

1904 - The St. Louis Police Department became the first to use fingerprinting.

1922 - Benito Mussolini took control of the Italian government and introduced fascism to Italy.

1936 - The Statue of Liberty was rededicated by U.S. President Roosevelt on its 50th anniversary.

1940 - During World War II, Italy invaded Greece.

1949 - U.S. President Harry Truman swore in Eugenie Moore Anderson as the U.S. ambassador to Denmark. Anderson was the first woman to hold the post of ambassador.

1962 - Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev informed the U.S. that he had ordered the dismantling of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.

1965 - Pope Paul VI issued a decree absolving Jews of collective guilt for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

1965 - The Gateway Arch along the waterfront in St. Louis, MO, was completed.

1976 - John D. Erlichman, a former aide to U.S. President Richard Nixon, entered a federal prison camp in Safford, AZ, to begin serving his sentence for Watergate-related convictions.

1982 - Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev condemned the U.S. for arms buildup.

1983 - The U.S. vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution "deeply deploring" the ongoing U.s.-led invasion of Grenada.

1985 - John A. Walker Jr. and his son, Michael Lance Walker, pled guilty to charges of spying for the Soviet Union.

1986 - The centennial of the Statue of Liberty was celebrated in New York.

1988 - Roussel Uclaf, a French manufacturer that produces the abortion pill RU486, announced it would resume distribution of the drug after the government of France demanded it do so.

1990 - Iraq announced that it was halting gasoline rationing.

1993 - Ousted Haitian President Jean-bertrand Aristide, called for a complete blockade of Haiti to force out the military leaders.

1994 - U.S. President Clinton visited Kuwait and implied that all the troops there would be home by Christmas.

1996 - The Dow Jones Industial Average gained a record 337.17 points (or 5%). The day before the Dow had dropped 554.26 points (or 7%).