| On this date in: |
| 1776 |
Thomas Paine published the pamphlet “Common Sense.” |
| 1861 |
Florida seceded from the Union. |
| 1863 |
London’s Metropolitan, the world’s first underground passenger railway, opened to the public. |
| 1870 |
John D. Rockefeller incorporated Standard Oil. |
| 1920 |
The League of Nations was established as the Treaty of Versailles went into effect. |
| 1957 |
Harold Macmillan became prime minister of Great Britain following the resignation of Anthony Eden. |
| 1964 |
The Beatles’ first album in the United States, “Introducing the Beatles,” was released. |
| 1967 |
Republican Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts, the first black elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote, took his seat. |
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| AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi |
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| 1971 |
“Masterpiece Theatre” premiered on PBS. |
| 1984 |
The United States and the Vatican established full diplomatic relations. |
| 2000 |
America Online agreed to buy Time-Warner for $162 billion. (Time-Warner decided to spin off AOL in 2009.) |
| 2003 |
North Korea withdrew from a global treaty barring it from making nuclear weapons. |
| 2005 |
CBS issued a damning independent review of mistakes related to a “60 Minutes Wednesday” report on President George W. Bush’s National Guard service. |
| 2007 |
President George W. Bush announced he would send a “surge” of 21,500 U.S. forces to Iraq. |
| 2011 |
A judge ordered former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to serve three years in prison for his role in a scheme to illegally funnel corporate money to Texas candidates in 2002. (DeLay remains free on bond as he appeals.) |
| 2012 |
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary. |
