| On this date in: |
| 1821 |
Missouri became the 24th state. |
| 1846 |
Congress chartered the Smithsonian Institution, named after English scientist James Smithson, whose bequest of $500,000 made it possible. |
| 1874 |
Herbert Clark Hoover, the 31st president of the United States, was born in West Branch, Iowa. |
| 1885 |
America’s first commercially operated electric streetcar began operation in Baltimore. |
| 1921 |
Franklin D. Roosevelt was stricken with polio at his summer home on the Canadian island of Campobello. |
| 1944 |
American forces overcame Japanese resistance on Guam during World War II. |
| 1949 |
The National Military Establishment was renamed the Department of Defense. |
| 1962 |
Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man made his debut in issue 15 of “Amazing Fantasy.” |
| 1969 |
Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were murdered in their Los Angeles home by members of Charles Manson’s cult, one day after actress Sharon Tate and four other people were slain. |
| 1988 |
President Ronald Reagan signed a measure providing $20,000 payments to Japanese-Americans interred by the U.S. government during World War II. |
| 1993 |
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was sworn in as the second female Supreme Court justice. |
 |
| AP Photo/Barry Thumma |
|
| 2006 |
British authorities announced they had thwarted a terrorist plot to simultaneously blow up 10 aircraft heading to the United States. |
| 2008 |
American swimmer Michael Phelps won the first of a record eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics by smashing his own world record in the 400-meter individual medley. |
