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On this day for the United States
Events
1841 - The
Supreme Court of the United States rules in the
Amistad case, concerning captive Africans who seized control of the slave-trading ship carrying them: the court rules that they had been taken into
slavery illegally.
1847 -
Mexican–American War : United States forces under
General
Winfield Scott invade Mexico near
Vera Cruz .
1856 -
Sigma Alpha Epsilon is founded in the Johnston Mansion House on the University of Alabama.
1862 -
American Civil War : The first battle between two ironclad
warships , a five-hour battle near
Hampton Roads ,
Virginia between the
USS Monitor and the
CSS Virginia , results in a draw.
1910 - The
Westmoreland County coal strike , involving 15,000
coal miners represented by the
United Mine Workers , begins.
1916 -
Pancho Villa leads 1,500 Mexican raiders in an attack against
Columbus, New Mexico , killing 17.
1932 - The first
Ford Flathead engine leaves the
assembly line at
Ford Motor Company .
1933 -
Great Depression : The
U.S. Congress begins its first 100 days of enacting
New Deal legislation. President
Franklin D. Roosevelt submits the
Emergency Banking Act to
Congress .
1945 - World War II:
Bombing of Tokyo - American
B-29 bombers attack Tokyo, Japan with
incendiary bombs . The resulting
firestorm kills over 100,000 people.
1954 -
McCarthyism :
CBS television broadcasts the
See It Now episode, "A Report on Senator
Joseph McCarthy ," produced by
Edward R. Murrow .
1959 - The
Barbie doll debuts.
1967 -
Joseph Stalin 's daughter
Svetlana Alliluyeva
defects to the United States.
1975 - Construction of the
Trans-Alaska Pipeline System begins.
1984 - The
Competitive Enterprise Institute in founded in Washington, D.C.
1986 -
United States Navy divers find the largely intact but heavily-damaged crew compartment of the
Space Shuttle Challenger . The bodies of all seven
astronauts were still inside.
1990 - Dr.
Antonia Novello is sworn in as
Surgeon General of the United States , becoming the first female and
Hispanic American to serve in that position.
1993 -
Rodney King testifies at the federal trial of four
Los Angeles police officers accused of violating King's
civil rights when they beat him during an arrest.
2007 - The
US Justice Department releases an internal
audit that found that the
FBI had acted illegally in its use of the
USA Patriot Act , to secretly obtain personal information about US citizens.