| On this date in: |
| 1777 |
The Second Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation, a precursor to the Constitution of the United States. |
| 1926 |
The National Broadcasting Co. debuted with a radio network of 24 stations. |
| 1939 |
The cornerstone for the Jefferson Memorial was laid in Washington, D.C. |
| 1940 |
The first 75,000 men were called to armed forces duty under peacetime conscription. |
| 1959 |
A farmer, his wife and two of their children were found murdered in their home in Holcomb, Kansas – a crime that was the subject of Truman Capote’s non-fiction novel “In Cold Blood.” |
| 1984 |
An infant who had received a baboon’s heart to replace her own congenitally deformed one died at a California medical center three weeks after the transplant. |
| 1985 |
Britain and Ireland signed an accord giving Dublin an official consultative role in governing Northern Ireland. |
| 1988 |
The Palestine National Council, the legislative body of the PLO, proclaimed the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. |
| 1993 |
A judge in Mineola, N.Y., sentenced Joey Buttafuoco to six months in jail for the statutory rape of Amy Fisher, who shot and wounded Buttafuoco’s wife, Mary Jo. |
| 2002 |
Hu Jintao replaced Jiang Zemin as China’s Communist Party leader. |
| 2007 |
Baseball home run king Barry Bonds was indicted on charges related to grand jury testimony during which he denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs. (Bonds was later convicted of obstruction of justice; his lawyers are appealing.) |
| 2011 |
Hundreds of police officers in riot gear raided the Occupy Wall Street encampment in New York City, evicting hundreds of protesters and then demolishing the tent city. |
