| On this date in: |
| 1809 |
The territory of Illinois was created. |
| 1913 |
The 16th Amendment to the Constitution, providing for a federal income tax, was ratified. |
| 1917 |
The United States broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, which had announced a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. |
| 1924 |
Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States, died in Washington, D.C., at age 67. |
| 1959 |
Rock ‘n’ roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson died in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa. |
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| AP Photo |
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| 1971 |
Apollo 14 astronauts Alan B. Shepard Jr. and Edgar D. Mitchell landed on the lunar sufrace during the third successful manned mission to the moon. |
| 1988 |
The U.S. House of Representatives rejected President Ronald Reagan’s request for more than $36 million in aid to the Nicaraguan Contras. |
| 1994 |
The space shuttle Discovery blasted off with a woman, Air Force Lt. Col. Eileen Collins, in the pilot’s seat for the first time. |
| 1998 |
Texas executed Karla Faye Tucker for the pickax killings of two people in 1983. |
| 2006 |
An Egyptian passenger ferry sank in the Red Sea during bad weather, killing more than 1,000 passengers. |
| 2011 |
Tens of thousands of protesters staged unprecedented demonstrations against Yemen’s autocratic president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, a key U.S. ally in battling Islamic militants. |
| 2012 |
Federal prosecutors dropped their investigation of Lance Armstrong, ending a nearly two-year effort aimed at determining whether the seven-time Tour de France winner and his teammates had participated in a doping program. |
