| On this date in: |
| 1839 |
The first Opium War between China and Britain broke out. |
| 1903 |
Panama proclaimed its independence from Colombia. |
| 1908 |
Republican William Howard Taft was elected president, outpolling William Jennings Bryan. |
| 1911 |
The Chevrolet Motor Car Co. was founded in Detroit by Louis Chevrolet and William C. Durant. |
| 1936 |
President Franklin D. Roosevelt was re-elected in a landslide over Republican Alfred M. “Alf” Landon. |
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| AP Photo |
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| 1957 |
The Soviet Union launched into orbit Sputnik 2, the second manmade satellite; a dog on board named Laika was sacrificed in the experiment. |
| 1964 |
President Lyndon B. Johnson soundly defeated Republican challenger Barry Goldwater to win a White House term in his own right. |
| 1970 |
Salvador Allende was inaugurated as president of Chile. |
| 1986 |
A Lebanese magazine broke the story of U.S. arms sales to Iran, a revelation that escalated into the Iran-Contra affair.
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| 1992 |
Democrat Bill Clinton was elected the 42nd president of the United States, defeating President George H.W. Bush. |
| 1992 |
Illinois Democrat Carol Moseley-Braun became the first African-American woman elected to the U.S. Senate. |
| 1994 |
Susan Smith of Union, S.C., was arrested for drowning her two young sons, nine days after claiming the children had been abducted by a black man. (Smith is serving life in prison.) |
| 2004 |
Hamid Karzai was declared the winner of Afghanistan’s first-ever presidential election. |
| 2005 |
Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, pleaded not guilty to a five-count felony indictment in the CIA leak case. (Libby was convicted, but President George W. Bush commuted his 30-month prison sentence.) |
| 2009 |
Maine residents narrowly voted down a same-sex marriage law. |
| 2010 |
The Federal Reserve announced a plan to buy $600 billion in Treasury bonds over the next eight months in an attempt to boost lending and stimulate economy. |
