Also on this date
In 1873,
Levi Strauss and tailor Jacob Davis received a U.S. patent for men’s work pants made with copper rivets.
In 1927,
Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field on Long Island, New York, aboard the Spirit of St. Louis on his historic solo flight to France.
In 1932,
Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. (Because of weather and equipment problems, Earhart set down in Northern Ireland instead of her intended destination, France.)
In 1956,
the United States exploded the first airborne hydrogen bomb over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.
In 1959,
nearly 5,000 JapaneseAmericans had their U.S. citizenships restored after choosing to renounce them during World War II.
In 1961,
a white mob attacked a busload of Freedom Riders in Montgomery, Alabama, prompting the federal government to send in U.S. marshals to restore order.
In 1995,
President Bill Clinton announced that the two-block stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House would be permanently closed to motor vehicles as a security measure.
Ten years ago:
Under pressure following security lapses, retired Navy Adm. Dennis Blair resigned as national intelligence director.
Five years ago:
Four of the world’s biggest banks — JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup’s banking unit Citicorp, Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland — agreed to pay more than $5 billion in penalties and plead guilty to rigging the currency markets.
One year ago:
Nuclear officials in Iran said the country had quadrupled its uranium-enrichment production capacity amid tensions with the U.S. over Tehran’s atomic program.