Sunday, October 26, 2014

On This Day in History - October 26 Bush Signs PATRIOT Act Into Law/ Diem Proclaims Self Premier of Vietnam

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!


Oct 26, 1955: Diem declares himself premier of Republic of Vietnam

Ngo Dinh Diem declares that pursuant to the wishes of the South Vietnamese people, as evidenced in a national referendum a few days before, the Republic of Vietnam is now in existence and that he will serve as the nation's first president. The event marked a crucial step in the deepening U.S. involvement in Vietnam, and gave evidence of some troubling aspects that would characterize Diem's eight years in power.  

Peace agreements in 1954, between the French and Vietnamese nationalists battling for independence, left Vietnam a divided country. In the north, Ho Chi Minh and his communist supporters were in control. In the south the French installed a weak "nationalist" government led by Bao Dai. National elections were to be held in two years to reunify the nation and select a leader. The United States was not a party to this agreement and quickly determined to save southern Vietnam from Ho's control. Diem was viewed by U.S. officials as the best hope for a leader for an independent, democratic South Vietnam. In 1954 Bao Dai named Diem as premier. By 1955, Diem decided to jettison Bao Dai and take control. He called a national referendum, which was supported by the United States. The resulting balloting was an embarrassment to all concerned (except Diem). Diem received 98.2 percent of the vote. (Just a short time earlier, President Eisenhower had criticized elections in Iron Curtain countries, claiming that no one receives over 90 percent of the vote in a truly free election.) Charges of corruption were immediately raised, and it was soon discovered that the 400,000 voters in Saigon cast over 600,000 ballots. Nevertheless, Diem succeeded. Bao Dai was out, and Diem's rule was complete. The United States, despite some qualms about exactly how "democratic" Diem's government would be, recognized the new president. The nation of South Vietnam was now a reality, and the United States had committed itself to its new government and leader. 







 











Oct 26, 2001: George W. Bush signs the Patriot Act  

On this day in 2001, President George W. Bush signs the Patriot Act, an anti-terrorism law drawn up in response to the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.  

The USA PATRIOT Act, as it is officially known, is an acronym for "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism." Bush hoped the bipartisan legislation would empower law enforcement and intelligence agencies to prevent future terrorist attacks on American soil.  

The law was intended, in Bush’s words, to "enhance the penalties that will fall on terrorists or anyone who helps them." The act increased intelligence agencies’ ability to share information and lifted restrictions on communications surveillance. Law enforcement officials were given broader mandates to fight financial counterfeiting, smuggling and money laundering schemes that funded terrorists. The Patriot Act’s expanded definition of terrorism also gave the FBI increased powers to access personal information such as medical and financial records. The Patriot Act superseded all state laws.  

While Congress voted in favor of the bill, and some in America felt the bill actually did not go far enough to combat terrorism, the law faced a torrent of criticism. Civil rights activists worried that the Patriot Act would curtail domestic civil liberties and would give the executive branch too much power to investigate Americans under a veil of secrecy—a fear not felt since the protest era of the 1960s and 1970s when the FBI bugged and infiltrated anti-war and civil rights groups.  

The Patriot Act has faced ongoing legal challenges by the American Civil Liberties Union, and in recent years, some members of Congress who had originally supported the bill have come to mistrust the Bush administration’s interpretation of the law. Nevertheless, a Republican-controlled Congress passed and Bush signed a renewal of the controversial Patriot Act in March 2006. Bush exacerbated the controversy over the renewal of the act by issuing a so-called "signing statement"—an executive exemption from enforcing or abiding by certain clauses within the law—immediately afterward.








 













Oct 26, 1917: Brazil declares war on Germany

On October 26, 1917, Brazil declares its decision to enter the First World War on the side of the Allied powers.  

As a major player in the Atlantic trading market, Brazil—an immense country occupying nearly one-half of the entire South American continent—had been increasingly threatened by Germany’s policy of unrestricted submarine warfare over the course of the first two years of World War I. In February 1917, when Germany resumed that policy after temporarily suspending it due to pressure from neutral nations such as the United States, President Woodrow Wilson responded by immediately breaking diplomatic relations with Germany; the U.S. formally entered the war alongside the Allied powers on April 6, 1917.  

One day before the U.S. declaration of war, a German U-boat sank the Brazilian merchant ship Parana as it sailed off the coast of France. On June 4, Dominico da Gama, the Brazilian ambassador to the U.S., wrote to Secretary of State Robert Lansing declaring that Brazil was revoking its previous neutrality and severing its own diplomatic relations with Germany. "Brazil ever was and is now free from warlike ambitions," da Gama stated, "and, while it always refrained from showing any partiality in the European conflict, it could no longer stand unconcerned when the struggle involved the United States, actuated by no interest whatever but solely for the sake of international judicial order, and when Germany included us and the other neutral powers in the most violent acts of war."  

Over the next few months, Brazil’s government actively sought to amend its constitution to enable it to declare war. This having been accomplished, the declaration was made on October 26, 1917. In an open letter sent to the Vatican but clearly intended to be read in countries around the world, the Brazilian foreign minister, Dr. Nilo Pecanha, justified his country’s decision to enter the epic struggle of World War I on the side of the Allies by pointing to Germany’s attacks on international trade and invoking the higher purpose of creating a more peaceful, democratic post-war world: "Through the sufferings and the disillusions to which the war has given rise a new and better world will be born, as it were, of liberty, and in this way a lasting peace may be established without political or economic restrictions, and all countries be allowed a place in the sun with equal rights and an interchange of ideas and values in merchandise on an ample basis of justice and equity."  

Though Brazil’s actual contribution to the Allied war effort was limited to one medical unit and some airmen, its participation was rewarded with a seat at the post-war bargaining table. The fact that Brazil—according to the size of its population—had three official delegates at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 angered Portugal, who had sent 60,000 soldiers to the Western Front and yet had only one delegate. Britain supported Portugal in the disagreement, while the U.S. backed Brazil; no change was made. This conflict illustrated how important it was considered for the nations of the world to have representation in Versailles, as it was there that the boundaries of the new, post-World War I world would be determined. On June 28, 1919, Brazil was one of 27 nations to sign the 200-page Versailles Treaty, alongside a number of other Latin American nations who had also declared their support for the Allies, including Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Uruguay.

 
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:

 
740 - An earthquake strikes Constantinople, causing much damage and death.
1366 - Comet 55P/1366 U1 (Tempel-Tuttle) approaches 0.0229 AUs of Earth
1387 - Amsterdam buccaneer Herman of Kuinre sign peace
1407 - Mobs attack Jewish community of Cracow
1492 - Columbus' fleet anchors on Ragged Island Range, Bahamas
1492 - Lead pencils 1st used
1524 - Spanish troops give Milan to France
1529 - Thomas More appointed English Lord Chancellor
1534 - Charles V names Joris of Egmont, bishop of Utrecht
1662 - Charles II of England sold Dunkirk to France
1667 - Aru Palakka's occupies Makassar (Goa)
1674 - Prince Willem III occupies Grave
1682 - William Penn accepts area around Delaware River from Duke of York
1749 - Georgia Colony reverses itself & rules slavery is legal
1774 - 1st Continental Congress adjourns in Philadelphia
1774 - Minute Men organized in colonies
1776 - Benjamin Franklin departed from America for France on a mission to seek French support for the American Revolution.
1787 - "Federalist Papers" published, calls for ratification of Constitution
1795 - Pinckney's Treaty between Spain & US is signed, establishing southern boundary of US & giving Americans right to send goods down Mississippi
United States founding father Benjamin FranklinUnited States founding father Benjamin Franklin 1795 - The French Directory, a five-man revolutionary government, is created.
1810 - US annexes western Florida
1822 - King Willem I obligates inhabitants of Brussels to use Dutch language
1825 - Erie Canal between Hudson River & Lake Erie opened
1830 - Belgian rebels occupy Antwerp
1858 - Hamilton Smith patents rotary washing machine
1859 - The Royal Charter is wrecked on the coast of Anglesey, north Wales with 459 dead.
1861 - Pony Express ends
1863 - Worldwide Red Cross organized in Geneva
1863 - Football Association forms in England, standardizing soccer, splitting with rugby
1864 - Union troops ambush & kill 'Bloody' Bill Anderson in Richmond MI
1868 - White terrorists kill several blacks in St Bernard Parish La
1869 - 1st American steeplechase horserace (Westchester, NY)
1876 - President sends federal troops to SC
1881 - Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday & Clanton involved in gunfight at OK Corral, in Tombstone, Az
OK Corral Sheriff Wyatt EarpOK Corral Sheriff Wyatt Earp 1886 - Modest Mussorgsky's "A Night on Bald Mountain," premieres in Russia
1887 - Detroit (NL) beats St Louis (AA) 10 games to 5 in World Series
1894 - German emperor Wilhelm II fires Chancellor Leo von Caprivi & premier Botho zu Eulenburg
1896 - Abyssinia & Italy sign peace treaty
1900 - After 4 years of work, 1st section of NY subway opens
1901 - 1st use of "getaway car" occurs after holding up a shop in Paris
1903 - Yerba Buena is 1st Key System ferry to cross SF Bay
1905 - 1st Soviet (workers' council) formed, St Petersburg, Russia
1905 - Union of Sweden & Norway ends
1911 - Phila A's beat NY Giants, 4 games to 2 in 8th World Series
1912 - Serbian troops over run Skopje (Uskup)
1912 - Woolwich Tunnel under Thames opens
1913 - Huerta elected president of Mexico
1916 - Margaret Sanger arrested for obscenity (advocating birth control)
1917 - Petrograd Soviet accepts establishment of Military
Nurse Margaret SangerNurse Margaret Sanger 1917 - World War I:Brazil declared in state of war with Central Powers.
1918 - Soldier revolt at Harskamp Veluwe
1919 - B C Hilliams musical "Buddies," premieres in NYC
1919 - Elgars "Cello concerto on 85" premieres in Queen's Hall London
1919 - President Wilson's veto of Prohibition Enforcement Bill is overridden
1921 - Solomon Porter Hood named minister to Liberia
1922 - Italian government resigns under pressure from fascists & Benito Mussolini
1923 - Dutch 2nd Chamber rejects Fleet laws (50-49 vote)
1923 - Government-Ruijs de Beerenbrouck resigns
1926 - Arthur Goodrich's "Caponsacchi," premieres in NYC
1926 - Belgium stabilizes current value of franc (5 franc becomes 1 "Belga")
1927 - Duke Ellington sings "Creole Love Song"
1930 - Dmitri Sjostakovitch' ballet "Zolotoy Vyek," premieres in Leningrad
1931 - Eugene O'Neill's "Mourning Becomes Electra," premieres in NYC
1933 - French government of Serraut forms
Jazz-orchestra leader, Composer, Pianist Duke EllingtonJazz-orchestra leader, Composer, Pianist Duke Ellington 1934 - While Wash player-mgr Joe Cronin honeymoons with Mildred Robertson owner Clark Griffith's niece & adopted daughter, he is sold to Red Sox
1939 - Polish Jewish forced into obligatory work service
1940 - The P-51 Mustang makes its maiden flight.
1941 - 2nd meeting partisans Tito & Draza Mihailovic in Yugoslavia
1941 - US savings bonds go on sale
1942 - 2nd day of Battle of Henderson Field, Guadalcanal
1942 - 4th day in battle at El Alamein: Australian breakthrough
1942 - Battle of Santa Cruz: USS SD shoots down a record 32 enemy planes
1943 - World War II: First flight of the Dornier Do 335 "Pfeil".
1947 - Maharajah of Jammu & Kashmir accedes to India
1947 - The British Military Occupation ends in Iraq.
1949 - President Harry Truman increases minimum wage from 40 cents to 75 cents
1950 - 630 Dutch volunteers depart (on)to Korea
1950 - Branch Rickey resigns as Brooklyn Dodger president
1950 - Mother Teresa founds Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India
Catholic Missionary Mother TeresaCatholic Missionary Mother Teresa 1950 - South Korean troops reach Chosan at Chinese boundary
1951 - Emile Zatopek runs world record 30,000m, 25,000m & 15 miles
1951 - Rocky Marciano defeats Joe Louis at Madison Square Garden
1951 - Winston Churchill re-elected British Prime Minister
1952 - Pakistan's 1st Test Cricket win Fazal Mahmood 12 wkts v India
1953 - Great Britain performs nuclear test at Emu Field Australia
1954 - Chevrolet unveils V-8 engine
1954 - Walt Disney's 1st television program, "Disneyland," premieres on ABC
1954 - Trieste return to Italy.
1955 - 1st edition of "Village Voice" (NYC) published
1955 - British troops occupy Saudi-Arabic oil field at Boeraimi
1955 - Ngo Dinh Diem proclaims Vietnam a republic with himself as pres
1956 - UN's International Atomic Energy Agency statute approved
1956 - Vietnam promulgates its constitution
1957 - USSR fires defense minister, Marshal Georgi Zhukov
Soldier, author, journalist, politician Winston ChurchillSoldier, author, journalist, politician Winston Churchill 1958 - PanAm flies 1st transatlantic jet trip-NY to Paris
1958 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1960 - AL approves Washington Senators move to become Minnesota Twins & announces franchises in LA & Wash DC for 1961
1961 - 1st Saturn launch vehicle made a flight test
1962 - Beatles tape "Please Please Me" & "Ask Me Why"
1962 - JFK warns Russia US will not allow Soviet missiles to remain in Cuba
1962 - Nikita Khrushchev sends note to JFK offering to withdraw his missiles from Cuba if US closed its bases in Turkey offer is rejected
1962 - US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Johnston Island
1963 - US performs underground nuclear test at Fallon Nevada
1964 - Rolling Stones appear on Ed Sullivan Show
1964 - Eric Edgar Cooke becomes last person in Western Australia to be executed.
1965 - Beatles receive MBEs at Buckingham Palace
1965 - Sylvia Likens tortured by teen girl gang
1966 - 1st Pacific communications satellite launched, Intelsat 2
1966 - US aircraft carrier Oriskany catches fire at Gulf on Tonken, 43 die
First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Nikita KhrushchevFirst Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev 1967 - Shah of Iran crowns himself after 26 years on Peacock Throne
1968 - 1st European satellite launched, Esro 1, at Cape Kennedy
1968 - KMIR TV channel 36 in Palm Springs, CA (NBC) begins broadcastng
1968 - Soyuz 3 launched
1969 - Carol Mann wins LPGA Corpus Christi Civitan Golf Open
1969 - WHMA (now WJSU) TV channel 40 in Anniston, AL (CBS) 1st broadcast
1970 - "Doonesbury" comic strip debuts in 28 newspapers
1970 - Tanzania begins building railway Lusaka-Drone ash Salaam
1971 - UN votes to replace Taiwan with China
1972 - Guided tours of Alcatraz (by Park Service) begin
1972 - Henry Kissinger declares "Peace is at hand" in Vietnam
1973 - Israeli forces reach Suez, trapping Egyptian army
1973 - President Nixon released 1st White House tapes on Watergate scandal
1973 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1973 - Wings release "Helen Wheels"
Politician, statesman Henry KissingerPolitician, statesman Henry Kissinger 1974 - Cleveland Coliseum opens for NBA's Cavaliers & MISL's Crunch
1975 - Anwar Sadat became 1st Egyptian president to officially visit US
1975 - China PR performs nuclear test at Lop Nor PRC
1975 - Cuba beats Mexico for its 4th Pan Am Games Gold Medal in baseball
1975 - Mary Bea Porter wins LPGA Golf Inns of America
1976 - Transkei gains independence, not recognized outside of South Africa
1976 - Trinidad & Tobago becomes a republic
1977 - 5th & final test of space shuttle Enterprise
1977 - Dr Clifford R Wharton Jr named chancellor of State University of NY
1977 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1977 - The last natural case of smallpox was discovered in Merca district, Somalia. The WHO and the CDC consider this date the anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, the most spectacular success of vaccination.
1978 - Menachem Begin & Anwar Sadat named winners of 1978 Nobel Peace Prize
1978 - Independent Counsel Act is signed into law.
1979 - Park Chung-hee, President of South Korea is assassinated by KCIA head Kim Jae-kyu. Choi Kyu-ha becomes the acting President; Kim is executed the following May.
1980 - 10th NYC Women's Marathon won by Grete Waitz in 2:25:41.3
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem BeginIsraeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin 1980 - 11th NYC Marathon won by Alberto Salazar in 2:09:41
1980 - St Louis Cards sack Balt Colt QBs an NFL record tying 12 times
1981 - LA Dodgers beat NY Yankees, 4 games to 2 in 78th World Series
1982 - Steve Carlton became 1st pitcher to win 4 Cy Young awards
1982 - US budget deficit reaches more than $110 trillion for fiscal year 1982
1983 - Hugh Williams' "Pack of Lies," premieres in London
1983 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1984 - "Baby Fae" gets baboon heart transplant, lives 21 days
1985 - -Nov 6] Hurricane Juan, kills 97 in US
1985 - On a poor call in 6th game, umpire Don Deckinger starts a string of events costing Cardinals the World Series
1986 - "Into the Light" closes at Neil Simon Theater NYC after 6 performances
1987 - Dow Jones down 156.83 points
1987 - Head of Salvadoran Human Rights Comm assassinated by death squads
1988 - Donald Trump bills Mike Tyson $2,000,000 for 4 month advisory service
1988 - US-Soviet effort free 2 grey whales from frozen Arctic, Barrow, AK
Businessman & T.V. Personality Donald TrumpBusinessman & T.V. Personality Donald Trump 1992 - The command and control system of the London Ambulance Service fails catastrophically.
1992 - The Charlottetown Accord fails to win majority support in a Canada wide referendum.
1992 - The London Ambulance Service was thrown into chaos after the implementation of a new CAD, or Computer Aided Despatch, system which failed.
1993 - NFL announces new expansion team, Carolina Panthers in Charlotte
1993 - NJ Devils lose 2-0 to Montreal, after winning 1st 7 games of 1993
1994 - Jordan & Israel sign peace accord
1995 - Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Mossad agents assassinate Islamic Jihad leader Fathi Shikaki in his hotel in Malta.
1996 - Horse Racing Breeders' Cup Champs: Lit de Justice, Storm Song, Jewel Princess, Da Hass, Boston Harbor, Pilsudski, Alphabet Soup at Woodbine
1997 - Bill Glasson wins Las Vegas Golf Invitational
1997 - Nichirei LPGA International
1997 - Raley's Gold Rush Senior Golf Classic
1997 - World Series: Fla Marlins beat Cleve Indians, 4 games to 3
1999 - Britain's House of Lords votes to end the right of hereditary peers to vote in Britain's upper chamber of Parliament.
2000 - NY Yankees defeat NY Mets 4-1 to win their 3rd straight World Series championship, MVP: Derek Jeter, NY Yankees
2000 - Laurent Gbagbo takes over as president of Côte d'Ivoire following a popular uprising against President Robert Guéï. Bret Hart retires.
Baseball Player Derek JeterBaseball Player Derek Jeter 2001 - The United States passes the USA PATRIOT Act into law.
2002 - Moscow Theatre Siege: Approximately 50 Chechen rebels and 150 hostages die when Russian Spetsnaz storm a theater building in Moscow, which had been occupied by the rebels during a musical performance three days before.
2003 - The Cedar Fire, the second-largest fire in California history, kills 15 people, consumes 250,000 acres (1,000 km²), and destroys 2,200 homes around San Diego.
2005 - Chicago White Sox defeat Houston Astros 4-0 in baseball's World Series championship, MVP: Jermaine Dye, Chicago
2012 - 64 people are killed in West Burma after continued sectarian clashes
2012 - 41 people are killed and 50 injured by a suicide bombing of a mosque in Maymana, Afghanistan
2012 - China blocks the New York Times from searches and social media in response to an investigation into Premier Wen Jiabao

2012 - Hurricane Sandy makes landfall in the Bahamas killing 2 people and causing over $300 million in damage



1774 - The First Continental Congress of the U.S. adjourned in Philadelphia.   1825 - The Erie Canal opened in upstate New York. The 363-mile canal connected Lake Erie and the Hudson River at a cost of $7,602,000.   1854 - Charles William Post was born. He was the inventor of "Grape Nuts," "Postum" and "Post Toasties."   1858 - H.E. Smith patented the rotary-motion washing machine.   1881 - The "Gunfight at the OK Corral" took place in Tombstone, AZ. The fight was between Wyatt Earp, his two brothers and Doc Holiday and the Ike Clanton Gang.   1905 - Norway gained independence from Sweden.   1942 - The U.S. ship Hornet was sunk in the Battle of Santa Cruz during World War II.   1944 - During World War II, the Battle of Leyte Gulf ended. The battle was won by American forces and brought the end of the Pacific phase of World War II into sight.   1949 - U.S. President Harry Truman raised the minimum wage from 40 to 75 cents an hour.   1951 - Winston Churchill became the prime minister of Great Britain.   1955 - New York City's "The Village Voice" was first published.   1957 - The Soviet Union announced that defense minister Marchal Georgi Zhukov had been relieved of his duties.   1958 - Pan American Airways flew its first Boeing 707 jetliner from New York City to Paris.   1962 - The Soviet Union made an offer to end the Cuban Missile Crisis by taking their missile bases out of Cuba if the U.S. agreed to not invade Cuba and would remove Jupiter missiles in Turkey.   1967 - The Shah of Iran crowned himself and his Queen after 26 years on the Peacock Throne.   1970 - "Doonesbury," the comic strip by Gary Trudeau, premiered in 28 newspapers across the U.S.   1972 - U.S. National security adviser Henry Kissinger declared, "Peace is at hand" in Vietnam.   1975 - Anwar Sadat became the first Egyptian president to officially visit to the United States.   1977 - The experimental space shuttle Enterprise successfully landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California.   1979 - South Korean President Park Chung-hee was shot to death by Kim Jae-kyu, the head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency.   1980 - Israeli President Yitzhak Navon became the first Israeli head of state to visit Egypt.   1984 - "Baby Fae" was given the heart of baboon after being born with a severe heart defect. She lived for 21 days with the animal heart.   1985 - Approximately 110,000 people marched past the U.S. and Soviet embassies in London to pressure the two countries to end their arms race.   1988 - Roussel Uclaf, a French pharmaceutical company, announced it was halting the worldwide distribution of RU-486. The pill is used to induce abortions. The French government made the company reverse itself two days later.   1988 - Two whales were freed by Soviet and American icebreakers. The whales had been trapped for nearly 3 weeks in an Arctic ice pack.   1990 - The U.S. State Department issued a warning that terrorists could be planning an attack on a passenger ship or aircraft.  1990 - Wayne Gretzky became the first NHL player to reach 2,000 points.   1991 - Former Washington Mayor Marion Barry arrived at a federal correctional institution in Petersburg, VA, to begin serving a six-month sentence for cocaine possession.   1992 - General Motors Corp. Chairman Robert Stempel resigned after the company recorded its highest losses in history.   1992 - In Canada, voters rejected the Charlottetown accord, which was designed to unify the country.   1993 - Deborah Gore Dean was convicted of 12 felony counts of defrauding the U.S. government and lying to the U.S. Congress. Dean was a central figure in the Reagan-era HUD scandal.   1994 - Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel and Prime Minister Abdel Salam Majali of Jordan signed a peace treaty.   1995 - Alec Baldwin got into a fight with a paparazzi in front of his home when he and his wife Kim Bassinger were bringing their first baby home from the hospital.   1995 - Mario Lemieux (Pittsburgh Penguins) scored his 500th National Hockey League (NHL) career goal against the New York Islanders in his 605th game. He became the second-fastest player to attain the plateau. Wayne Gretzky had reached 600 goals by his 575th NHL game.   1996 - Federal prosecutors cleared Richard Jewell as a suspect in the Olympic park bombing.   1998 - A French lab found a nerve agent on an Iraqi missile warhead.   2001 - It was announced that Fort Worth's Lockheed Martin won a defense contract for $200 billion over 40 years. The contract, for the "joint strike fighter," was the largest defense contract in history.   2002 - Russian authorities pumped a gas into a theater where separatist rebels held over 800 hostages. The gas killed 116 hostages and all 50 hostage-takers were killed by the gas or gunshot wounds.



1774 The First Continental Congress adjourned in Philadelphia. 1825 The Erie Canal, connecting Lake Erie to the Hudson River, opened. 1881 Wyatt Earp, his two brothers, and Doc Holliday were involved in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. 1975 Anwar Sadat became the first Egyptian president to pay an official visit to the United States. 1979 South Korean president Park Chung Hee was killed by the head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency. 1994 Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel and Prime Minister Abdel Salam Majali of Jordan signed a peace treaty in a ceremony attended by President Clinton. 2002 Russian government forces stormed the Moscow theater held by Chechen rebels. More than 100 hostages were killed. 2005 The Chicago White Sox sweep the Houston Astros to win their first World Series in 88 years.

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