| On this date in: |
| 1789 |
North Carolina became the 12th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. |
| 1980 |
Baseball Hall of Famer Stan Musial was born in Donora, Pa. |
| 1922 |
Rebecca L. Felton of Georgia was sworn in as the first woman to serve in the U.S. Senate. |
| 1969 |
The Senate voted down the Supreme Court nomination of Clement F. Haynsworth. |
| 1973 |
President Richard Nixon’s attorney, J. Fred Buzhardt, revealed the existence of an 18 1/2-minute gap in one of the White House tape recordings related to Watergate. |
| 1980 |
A fire at the MGM Grand Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas killed 87 people. |
| 1985 |
Former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay Pollard was arrested, accused of spying for Israel. (He later pleaded guilty and is serving a life sentence.) |
| 1989 |
The proceedings of Britain’s House of Commons were televised live for the first time. |
| 1991 |
The U.N. Security Council chose Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt to be secretary-general. |
| 1995 |
The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 5,000 for the first time. |
| 2000 |
The Florida Supreme Court granted Democrat Al Gore’s request to keep the presidential election recount going. |
| 2001 |
A 94-year-old Connecticut woman died of inhalation anthrax, the last of five people killed in the anthrax attacks. |
| 2002 |
NATO invited seven former communist countries to join the alliance: Slovenia, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Bulgaria. |
| 2004 |
The NBA suspended Indiana’s Ron Artest for the rest of the season following a brawl in the stands during a game against the Detroit Pistons. |
| 2005 |
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon broke away from the hardline Likud with the intention of forming a new party. |
| 2007 |
Officials announced the recall of more than a half-million pieces of Chinese-made children’s jewelry contaminated with lead. |
| 2010 |
Debt-struck Ireland applied for a massive EU-IMF loan to stem the flight of capital from its banks. |
