| On this date in: |
| 1636 |
Harvard College was founded. |
| 1793 |
Eli Whitney applied for a patent for the cotton gin. |
| 1858 |
Rowland Hussey Macy opened his first New York store at Sixth Avenue and 14th Street in Manhattan. |
| 1919 |
Congress enacted the Volstead Act, which provided for enforcement of Prohibition, over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto. |
| 1922 |
Fascism came to Italy as Benito Mussolini took control of the government. |
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| AP Photo |
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| 1958 |
The Roman Catholic patriarch of Venice, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, was elected pope, taking the name John XXIII. |
| 1962 |
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev informed the United States that he had ordered the dismantling of Soviet missile bases in Cuba. |
| 1965 |
Pope Paul VI issued a decree absolving Jews of collective guilt for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. |
| 1980 |
Republican nominee Ronald Reagan asked voters during a debate with President Jimmy Carter in Cleveland “are you better off than you were four years ago?” |
| 2005 |
Vice President Dick Cheney’s top adviser, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, resigned after he was indicted on charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements in the CIA leak investigation. (Libby was convicted and sentenced to 30 months in prison. President George W. Bush commuted his sentence.) |
| 2006 |
Hall of Fame basketball coach Red Auerbach died at age 89. |
| 2007 |
Cristina Fernandez was elected Argentina’s first woman president. |
| 2009 |
Angela Merkel was sworn in for a second term as German chancellor. |
