| On this date in: |
| 1765 |
The Stamp Act Congress convened in New York to draw up colonial grievances against England. |
| 1849 |
Author Edgar Allan Poe died at age 40. |
| 1868 |
Cornell University was inaugurated in Ithaca, N.Y. |
| 1879 |
Communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky was born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein in Yanovka, Ukraine. |
| 1949 |
The Republic of East Germany was formed. |
| 1954 |
Marian Anderson became the first black singer hired by New York’s Metropolitan Opera. |
| 1963 |
President John F. Kennedy signed the documents of ratification for a nuclear test ban treaty with Britain and the Soviet Union. |
| 1968 |
The Motion Picture Association of America adopted a film-rating system. |
| 1981 |
Egypt’s parliament named Vice President Hosni Mubarak to succeed the assassinated Anwar Sadat. |
| 1982 |
The musical “Cats” opened on Broadway, beginning its record run of 7,485 performances. |
| 1985 |
Palestinian gunmen hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean with more than 400 people aboard. |
| 1996 |
Fox News Channel made its debut. |
| 1998 |
Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, was beaten, robbed and left tied to a wooden fence post outside Laramie, Wyo.; he died five days later. |
| 2001 |
Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants wrapped up his record-breaking season with his 73rd home run. |
| 2003 |
California voters recalled Gov. Gray Davis and elected actor Arnold Schwarzenegger to replace him. |
| 2006 |
Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist who had chronicled Russian military abuses against civilians in Chechnya, was found shot to death in Moscow. |
| 2008 |
The Federal Reserve annouced a radical plan to buy massive amounts of short-term debt, known as commercial paper, to get credit markets moving again. |
