Today in history

In 1690 the first paper money in America was issued by the colony of Massachusetts. (The currency was used to pay soldiers fighting a war against Quebec.)

In 1783 Spain recognized U.S. independence.

In 1809 the territory of Illinois was created.

In 1865 President Abraham Lincoln and Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens held a peace conference aboard a ship off the Virginia coast. (The talks deadlocked over the issue of Southern autonomy.)

In 1913 the 16th Amendment to the Constitution, providing for a federal income tax, was ratified.

In 1916 Canada’s original Parliament Buildings, in Ottawa, burned down.

In 1917 the United States broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, which had announced a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.

In 1943 during World War II, the U.S. transport ship Dorchester, which was carrying troops to Greenland, sank after being hit by a torpedo. (Four Army chaplains gave their life belts to four other men and went down with the ship.)

In 1966 the Soviet probe Luna 9 became the first manmade object to make a soft landing on the moon.

In 1988 the U.S. House rejected President Ronald Reagan’s request for at least $36.25 million in aid to the Nicaraguan Contras.

In 1994 The space shuttle Discovery lifted off, carrying Sergei Krikalev, the first Russian cosmonaut to fly aboard a U.S. spacecraft.

In 1995

the space shuttle Discovery blasted off with a woman, Air Force Lt. Col. Eileen Collins, in the pilot’s seat for the first time in NASA history.

In 1996 Sgt. 1st Class Donald Dugan, 38, became the first U.S. soldier killed while on duty in Bosnia when a piece of ammunition exploded in his hands. Also in 1996 actress Audrey Meadows died in Los Angeles; she was 71.

In 1998 Texas executed Karla Faye Tucker for the pickax killings of two people in 1983; she was the first woman executed in the United States since 1984. Also in 1998 a U.S. Marine jet sliced through a ski gondola cable in Italy, sending the car’s 20 occupants plunging 370 feet to their deaths.

In 2000 the Senate voted 89-4 to confirm Alan Greenspan for a fourth term as chairman of the Federal Reserve.