| On this date in: |
| 1787 |
Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. |
| 1796 |
Electors chose John Adams to be the second president of the United States. |
| 1836 |
Martin Van Buren was elected the eighth president of the United States. |
| 1842 |
The New York Philharmonic gave its first concert. |
| 1963 |
Videotaped instant replay was used for the first time in a live sports telecast during the Army-Navy football game on CBS. |
| 1972 |
America’s last moon mission was launched as Apollo 17 blasted off from Cape Canaveral. |
| 1982 |
A U.S. prisoner was executed by injection for the first time, in Huntsville, Texas. |
| 1985 |
Retired Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart died at age 70. |
| 1988 |
An earthquake in northern Armenia claimed an estimated 25,000 lives. |
| 1993 |
A gunman opened fire on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train, killing six people and wounding 17. (Colin Ferguson was later sentenced to a minimum of 200 years in prison.) |
| 1995 |
A 746-pound probe from the Galileo spacecraft hurtled into Jupiter’s atmosphere, sending back data to the mothership before it was destroyed. |
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| AP Photo |
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| 2001 |
Taliban forces abandoned their last bastion in Afghanistan, fleeing the southern city of Kandahar. |
| 2002 |
Iraq denied it had weapons of mass destruction in a declaration to the United Nations. |
| 2004 |
Hamid Karzai was sworn in as Afghanistan’s first popularly elected president. |
| 2011 |
Ousted Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in prison for corruption. |
