TODAY IN HISTORY

1794

President George Washington approved a measure adding two stars and two stripes to the American flag, following the admission of Vermont and Kentucky to the Union.

1915

A magnitude-7earthquake centered in Avezzano, Italy, claimed some 30,000lives.

1941

A new law went into effect granting Puerto Ricans U.S. birthright citizenship. Novelist and poet James Joyce died in Zurich, Switzerland, less than a month before his 59th birthday.

1982

An Air Florida 737crashed into Washington, D.C.’s 14th Street Bridge and fell into the Potomac River while trying to take off during a snowstorm, killing 78 people; four passengers and a flight attendant survived.