| On this date in: |
| 1804 |
Lt. Stephen Decatur led a successful raid into Tripoli harbor to burn the U.S. Navy frigate Philadelphia, which had fallen into the hands of pirates. |
| 1868 |
The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks was organized in New York City. |
| 1918 |
Lithuania proclaimed its independence. |
| 1923 |
The burial chamber of King Tutankhamen’s recently unearthed tomb was unsealed in Egypt. |
| 1937 |
Wallace H. Carothers, a research chemist for Du Pont, received a patent for nylon. |
| 1945 |
American troops landed on the island of Corregidor in the Philippines during World War II. |
| 1948 |
NBC-TV aired the first nightly newscast, “The Camel Newsreel Theatre,” which consisted of Fox Movietone newsreels. |
| 1968 |
The nation’s first 911 emergency telephone system was inaugurated in Haleyville, Ala. |
| 2005 |
The Kyoto global warming pact, which the U.S. never ratified, went into effect. |
| 2005 |
The NHL canceled what was left of its season after a round of last-gasp negotiations failed to resolve differences over a salary cap. |
| 2011 |
Bookstore chain Borders filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. |
| 2012 |
A federal judge in Detroit ordered life in prison for Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian man who’d tried to blow up a packed Northwest jetliner with a bomb concealed in his underwear. |
