In 1941

In 1942 Gen. Douglas MacArthur arrived in Australia to become supreme commander of Allied forces in the southwest Pacific theater during World War II.

scientists at the University of California, Berkeley announced they had created a new radioactive element, “californium.”

the U.S. Navy launched the Vanguard 1 satellite.

a U.S. midget submarine located a missing hydrogen bomb which had fallen from an American bomber into the Mediterranean off Spain. In 2003, In 2004

BOB DAUGHERTY/AP Golda Meir became prime minister of Israel. a car bomb tore apart a five-story hotel catering to foreigners in the heart of Baghdad, killing seven people.

JIM WATSON/AFP edging to the brink of war, President George W. Bush gave Saddam Hussein 48 hours to leave his country and told Americans that military confrontation would ultimately make them safer. (Iraq rejected Bush’s ultimatum, saying a U.S. attack to force...