TODAY IN HISTORY

1718

English pirate Edward Teach — better known as “Blackbeard” — was killed during a battle off present-day North Carolina.

1906

The “S-O-S” distress signal was adopted at the International Radio Telegraphic Convention in Berlin.

1935

A flying boat, the China Clipper, took off from Alameda, Calif., carrying more than 100,000pieces of mail on the first trans-Pacific airmail flight.

1943

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek met in Cairo to discuss measures for defeating Japan.

1963

John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was shot to death during a motorcade in Dallas; Texas Gov. John B. Connally, riding in the same car as Kennedy, was seriously wounded. Suspected gunman Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as president.