Charles J. Guiteau's trial began for the assassination of U.S. President Garfield. Guiteau was convicted and hanged the following year.
1922
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) began it's domestic radio service.
1889
New York World reporter Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) began an attempt to surpass the fictitious journey of Jules Verne's Phileas Fogg by traveling around the world in less than 80 days. Bly succeeded by finishing the journey the following January in 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes.
1998
Carmen Electra and Dennis Rodman were married in Las Vegas, NV.
1851
Herman Melville's novel "Moby Dick" was first published in the U.S.A.
1832
The first streetcar went into operation in New York City, NY. The vehicle was horse-drawn and had room for 30 people.
1935: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed the Philippine Islands a free commonwealth after its new constitution was approved. The Tydings-McDuffie Act planned for the Phillipines to be completely independent by July 4, 1946.
1940: During World War II, German war planes destroyed most of the English town of Coventry when about 500 Luftwaffe bombers attacked.
1943: Ernie Nevers of the St. Louis Cardinals became the first professional football player to score six touchdowns in a single game.
1956: The USSR crushed the Hungarian uprising.
1968: Yale University announced it was going co-educational.
1969: Apollo 12 blasted off for the moon from Cape Kennedy, FL.
1969: During the Vietnam War, Major General Bruno Arthur Hochmuth, commander of the Third Marine Division, became the first general to be killed in Vietnam by enemy fire.
1972: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above the 1,000 (1,003.16) level for the first time.
1972: Blue Ribbon Sports became Nike.
1973: Britain's Princess Anne married a commoner, Capt. Mark Phillips, in Westminster Abbey. They divorced in 1992, and Princess Anne re-married.
1979: U.S. President Carter froze all Iranian assets in the United States and U.S. banks abroad in response to the taking of 63 American hostages at the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran.
1983: The British government announced that U.S.-made cruise missiles had arrived at the Greenham Common air base amid protests.
1986: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposed a record $100 million penalty against Ivan F. Boesky for insider-trading and barred him from working again in the securities industry.
1987: In the lobby of Beirut's American University Hospital a bomb hidden in a box of chocolates exploded. Seven people were killed including the woman carrying the box.
1988: Israeli President Chaim Herzog formally asked Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir to form a new government.
1989: The U.S. Navy ordered an unprecedented 48-hour stand-down in the wake of a recent string of serious accidents.
1990: Simon and Schuster announced it had dropped plans to publish Bret Easton Ellis novel "American Psycho."
1991: U.S. and British authorities announced indictments against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.
1991: Thomas McIlvane fatally shot four workers at the Royal Oak, MI, Post Office before killing himself. He had been fired from the location.
1991: After 13 years in exile Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk returned to his homeland.
1994: U.S. experts visited North Korea's main nuclear complex for the first time under an accord that opened such sites to outside inspections.
1995: The U.S. government instituted a partial shutdown, closing national parks and museums while most government offices operated with skeleton crews.