| On this date in: |
| 1776 |
George Washington’s retreating army crossed the Delaware River from New Jersey to Pennsylvania during the Revolutionary War. |
| 1854 |
Pope Pius IX proclaimed the Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception, which holds that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was free of original sin from the moment of her own conception. |
| 1863 |
President Abraham Lincoln announced his plan for the Reconstruction of the South. |
| 1886 |
The American Federation of Labor was founded in Columbus, Ohio. |
| 1980 |
Rock musician John Lennon was shot to death outside his New York City apartment building by Mark David Chapman. The former Beatle was 40. |
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| AP Photo/Steve Sands |
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| 1987 |
Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories began an intefadeh, or uprising. |
| 1987 |
President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed a treaty calling for destruction of intermediate-range nuclear missiles. |
| 1991 |
Russia, Belarus and Ukraine declared the Soviet national government dead, forming a new Commonwealth of Independent States. |
| 1991 |
Kimberly Bergalis, who had contracted AIDS from her dentist, died in Florida at age 23. |
| 1992 |
Americans saw live TV coverage of U.S. troops landing on the beaches of Somalia as Operation Restore Hope began. |
| 1993 |
President Bill Clinton signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement. |
| 1995 |
The Grateful Dead announced they were breaking up, four months after the death of lead guitarist Jerry Garcia. |
| 2008 |
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told the Guantanamo war crimes tribunal he would confess to masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks; four other men also abandoned their defenses. |
