1814 - Francis Scott Key's patriotic verses, entitled "The Star Spangled Banner," were first published in "The Baltimore American." (The poem became the American National Anthem in 1931.)

1848 - The Arkansas Baptist State Convention was organized in Tulip, Arkansas, by 72 delegates from several area-wide Baptist churches and organizations. It was the first statewide Baptist organization in the history of Arkansas.

1933 - In Germany during Hitler's rise to power, Martin Niemoeller began organizing the Pastors' Emergency League. Over 7,000 churches joined, although some 2,500 later withdrew under Nazi pressure. (The League itself gave birth to the more famous Barmen Synod, formed in May 1934.)

1792 – French Revolution: One day after the National Convention voted to abolish the monarchy, the French First Republic came into being.

1914 – World War I: German naval forces bombarded Papeete in French Polynesia.

1922 – After nine days, the Great Fire of Smyrna was extinguished, having caused tens of thousands of deaths.

1961 – The U.S. Congress authorized President John F. Kennedy's executive order to establish the Peace Corps (logo pictured).

1961 – The U.S. Congress authorized President John F. Kennedy's executive order to establish the Peace Corps (logo pictured).
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e7/US-PeaceCorps-Logo.svg/100px-US-PeaceCorps-Logo.svg.png

1994 – The Nordhordland Bridge, which crosses Salhusfjorden between Klauvaneset and Flatøy in Hordaland, and is the second-longest bridge in Norway, was officially opened.

66 – Roman Emperor Nero creates the Legion I Italica.

1236 – The Lithuanians and Semigallians defeat the Livonian Brothers of the Sword in the Battle of Saule.

1499 – Treaty of Basel: Switzerland becomes an independent state.

1586 – Battle of Zutphen: Spanish victory over England and Dutch.

1598 – English playwright Ben Jonson kills an actor in a duel and is indicted for manslaughter.

1692 – Last people hanged for witchcraft in Britain's North American colonies.

1761 – George III and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz are crowned King and Queen, respectively, of the Kingdom of Great Britain.

1776 – Nathan Hale is hanged for spying during American Revolution.

1784 – Russia establishes a colony at Kodiak, Alaska.

1789 – The office of United States Postmaster General is established.

1789 – Battle of Rymnik establishes Alexander Suvorov as a pre-eminent Russian military commander after his allied army defeat superior Ottoman Empire forces.

1792 – Primidi Vendémiaire of year 1 of the French Republican Calendar as the French First Republic comes into being.

1823 – Joseph Smith, Jr. states he found the Golden plates on this date after being directed by God through the Angel Moroni to the place where they were buried.

1851 – The city of Des Moines, Iowa is incorporated as Fort Des Moines.

1862 – Slavery in the United States: a preliminary version of the Emancipation Proclamation is released.

1866 – Battle of Curupaity in the War of the Triple Alliance.

1869 – Richard Wagner's opera Das Rheingold premieres in Munich.

1885 – Lord Randolph Churchill makes a speech in Ulster in opposition to Home Rule.

1888 – The first issue of National Geographic Magazine is published.

1896 – Queen Victoria surpasses her grandfather King George III as the longest reigning monarch in British history.

1908 – The independence of Bulgaria is proclaimed.

1910 – The Duke of York's Picture House opens in Brighton, now the oldest continually operating cinema in Britain.

1919 – The steel strike of 1919, led by the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, begins in Pennsylvania before spreading across the United States.

1927 – Jack Dempsey loses the "Long Count" boxing match to Gene Tunney.

1934 – An explosion takes place at Gresford Colliery in Wales, leading to the deaths of 266 miners and rescuers.

1937 – Spanish Civil War: Peña Blanca is taken; the end of the Battle of El Mazuco.

1939 – Joint victory parade of Wehrmacht and Red Army in Brest-Litovsk at the end of the Invasion of Poland.

1941 – World War II: On Jewish New Year Day, the German SS murder 6,000 Jews in Vinnytsya, Ukraine. Those are the survivors of the previous killings that took place a few days earlier in which about 24,000 Jews were executed.

1944 – World War II: the Red Army enters Tallinn.

1955 – In the United Kingdom, the television channel ITV goes live for the first time.

1957 – In Haiti, Francois Duvalier is elected president.

1960 – The Sudanese Republic is renamed Mali after the withdrawal of Senegal from the Mali Federation.

1965 – The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 (also known as the Second Kashmir War) between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, ends after the UN calls for a cease-fire.

1975 – Sara Jane Moore tries to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford, but is foiled by Oliver Sipple.

1979 – The Vela Incident (also known as the South Atlantic Flash) is observed near Bouvet Island, thought to be a nuclear weapons test.

1980 – Iraq invades Iran.

1991 – The Dead Sea Scrolls are made available to the public for the first time by the Huntington Library.

1993 – A barge strikes a railroad bridge near Mobile, Alabama, causing the deadliest train wreck in Amtrak history. 47 passengers are killed.

1993 – A Transair Georgian Airlines Tu-154 is shot down by a missile in Sukhumi, Georgia.

1995 – An E-3B AWACS crashes outside Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska after multiple bird strikes to two of the four engines soon after takeoff; all 24 on board are killed.

1995 – Nagerkovil school bombing, is carried out by Sri Lankan Air Force in which at least 34 die, most of them ethnic Tamil school children.

2003 – David Hempleman-Adams becomes the first person to cross the Atlantic Ocean in an open-air, wicker-basket hot air balloon.

1123 – Pope Calixtus II and Holy Roman Emperor Henry V agreed to the Concordat of Worms to put an end to the Investiture Controversy.

1780 – American Revolutionary War: British officer John André was captured by Patriot forces, thereby revealing the plot hatched by Continental Army General Benedict Arnold to hand over West Point, New York, in return for cash and a commission in the British Army.

1803 – Maratha troops were beaten by British forces at the Battle of Assaye, one of the decisive battles of the Second Anglo-Maratha War.

1868 – Ramón Emeterio Betances (pictured) led the Grito de Lares, a revolt against Spanish rule in Puerto Rico.

1868 – Ramón Emeterio Betances (pictured) led the Grito de Lares, a revolt against Spanish rule in Puerto Rico.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/09/Dr._Ramon_Betances.jpg/100px-Dr._Ramon_Betances.jpg

1932 – Hejaz and Nejd merged to form the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with Ibn Saud as the first monarch and Riyadh as the capital city.

1122 – Pope Calixtus II and Holy Roman Emperor Henry V agree to the Concordat of Worms to put an end to the Investiture Controversy.

1409 – Battle of Kherlen, the second significant victory over Ming China by the Mongols since 1368.

1459 – Battle of Blore Heath, the first major battle of the English Wars of the Roses, is fought at Blore Heath in Staffordshire.

1641 – The Merchant Royal, carrying a treasure worth over a billion US dollars, is lost at sea off Land's End.

1642 – First commencement exercises occur at Harvard College.

1779 – American Revolution: a squadron commanded by John Paul Jones on board the USS Bonhomme Richard wins the Battle of Flamborough Head, off the coast of England, against two British warships.

1806 – Lewis and Clark return to St. Louis after exploring the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

1821 – Tripolitsa, Greece, falls and 30,000 Turks are massacred during the Greek War of Independence.

1845 – The Knickerbockers Baseball Club, the first baseball team to play under the modern rules, is founded in New York.

1846 – Neptune is discovered by French astronomer Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier and British astronomer John Couch Adams; the discovery is verified by German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle.

1857 – The Russian warship Lefort capsizes and sinks during a storm in the Gulf of Finland, killing all 826 aboard.

1889 – Nintendo Koppai (Later Nintendo Company, Limited) is founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce and market the playing card game Hanafuda.

1905 – Norway and Sweden sign the "Karlstad treaty", peacefully dissolving the Union between the two countries.

1908 – University of Alberta in Alberta, Canada, is founded.

1909 – The Phantom of the Opera (original title: Le Fantôme de l'Opéra), a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux, is first published as a serialization in Le Gaulois.

1936 – First ascent of Siniolchu by a German team.

1938 – Mobilization of the Czechoslovak army in response to the Munich Crisis.

1941 – World War II: The first gas chamber experiments are conducted at Auschwitz.

1942 – World War II: First day of the September Matanikau action on Guadalcanal as United States Marine Corps forces attack Imperial Japanese Army units along the Matanikau River.

1943 – World War II: The Nazi puppet state the Italian Social Republic is founded.

1952 – Richard Nixon makes his "Checkers speech".

1952 – Richard Nixon makes his "Checkers speech".
"My Fellow Americans,

I come before you tonight as a candidate for the Vice-presidency and as a man whose honesty and integrity has been questioned.

Now, the usual political thing to do when charges are made against you is to either ignore them or to deny them without giving details. I believe we have had enough of that in the United States, particularly with the present administration in Washington D.C.

To me, the office of the Vice-presidency of the United States is a great office, and I feel that the people have got to have confidence in the integrity of the men who run for that office and who might attain them.

I have a theory, too, that the best and only answer to a smear or an honest misunderstanding of the facts is to tell the truth. And that is why I am here tonight. I want to tell you my side of the case.

I am sure that you have read the charges, and you have heard it, that I, Senator Nixon, took $18,000 from a group of my supporters.

Now, was that wrong? And let me say that it was wrong. I am saying it, incidentally, that it was wrong, just not illegal, because it isn't a question of whether it was legal or illegal, that isn't enough. The question is, was it morally wrong? I say that it was morally wrong if any of that $18,000 went to Senator Nixon, for my personal use. I say that it was morally wrong if it was secretly given and secretly handled.

And I say that it was morally wrong if any of the contributors got special favors for the contributions that they made.

And to answer those questions let me say this--not a cent of the $18,000 or any other money of that type ever went to me for my personal use. Every penny of it was used to pay for political expenses that I did not think should be charged to the taxpayers of the United States.

It was not a secret fund. As a matter of fact, when I was on "Meet the Press"--some of you may have seen it last Sunday--Peter Edson came up to me after the program, and he said, "Dick, what about this fund we hear about?" And I said, "Well, there is no secret about it. Go out and see Dana Smith who was the administrator of the fund," and I gave him his address. And I said you will find that the purpose of the fund simply was to defray political expenses that I did not feel should be charged to the government.

And third, let me point out, and I want to make this particularly clear, that no contributor to this fund, no contributor to any of my campaigns, has ever received any consideration that he would not have received as an ordinary constituent.

I just don't believe in that, and I can say that never, while I have been in the Senate of the United States, as far as the people that contributed to this fund are concerned, have I made a telephone call to an agency, nor have I gone down to an agency on their behalf.

And the records will show that--the records which are in the hands of the administration.

Well, then, some of you will say, and rightly, "Well, what did you use the fund for, Senator? Why did you have to have it?"

Let me tell you in just a word how a Senate office operates. First of all, the Senator gets $15,000 a year in salary. He gets enough money to pay for one trip a year, a round trip, that is, for himself, and his family between his home and Washington D.C. And then he gets an allowance to handle the people that work in his office to handle his mail.

And the allowance for my State of California, is enough to hire 13 people. And let me say, incidentally, that this allowance is not paid to the Senator.

It is paid directly to the individuals, that the Senator puts on his payroll, but all of these people and all of these allowances are for strictly official business--business, for example, when a constituent writes in and wants you to go down to the Veteran's Administration and get some information about his GI policy--items of that type for example. But there are other expenses that are not covered by the government. And I think I can best discuss those expenses by asking you some questions.

Do you think that when I or any other Senator makes a political speech, has it printed, should charge the printing of that speech and the mailing of that speech to the taxpayers?

Do you think, for example, when I or any other Senator makes a trip to his home state to make a purely political speech that the cost of that trip should be charged to the taxpayers?

Do you think when a Senator makes political broadcasts or political television broadcasts, radio or television, that the expense of those broadcasts should be charged to the taxpayers?

I know what your answer is. It is the same answer that audiences give me whenever I discuss this particular problem.

The answer is no. The taxpayers should not be required to finance items which are not official business but which are primarily political business.

Well, then the question arises, you say, "Well, how do you pay for these and how can you do it legally?" And there are several ways, that it can be done, incidentally, and it is done legally in the United States Senate and in the Congress.

The first way is to be a rich man. So I couldn't use that.

Another way that is used is to put your wife on the payroll. Let me say, incidentally, that my opponent, my opposite number for the Vice-presidency on the Democratic ticket, does have his wife on the payroll and has had her on his payroll for the past ten years. Now let me just say this--That is his business, and I am not critical of him for doing that. You will have to pass judgment on that particular point, but I have never done that for this reason:

I have found that there are so many deserving stenographers and secretaries in Washington that needed the work that I just didn't feel it was right to put my wife on the payroll--My wife sitting over there.

She is a wonderful stenographer. She used to teach stenography and she used to teach shorthand in high school. That was when I met her. And I can tell you folks that she has worked many hours on Saturdays and Sundays in my office, and she has done a fine job, and I am proud to say tonight that in the six years I have been in the Senate of the United States, Pat Nixon has never been on the government payroll.

What are the other ways that these finances can be taken care of? Some who are lawyers, and I happen to be a lawyer, continue to practice law, but I haven't been able to do that.

I am so far away from California and I have been so busy with my senatorial work that I have not engaged in any legal practice, and, also, as far as law practice is concerned, it seemed to me that the relationship between an attorney and the client was so personal that you couldn't possibly represent a man as an attorney and then have an unbiased view when he presented his case to you in the event that he had one before government.

And so I felt that the best way to handle these necessary political expenses of getting my message to the American people and the speeches I made--the speeches I had printed for the most part concerned this one message of exposing this administration, the Communism in it, the corruption in it--the only way I could do that was to accept the aid which people in my home state of California, who contributed to my campaign and who continued to make these contributions after I was elected, were glad to make.

And let me say that I am proud of the fact that not one of them has ever asked me for a special favor. I am proud of the fact that not one of them has ever asked me to vote on a bill other than my own conscience would dictate. And I am proud of the fact that the taxpayers by subterfuge or otherwise have never paid one dime for expenses which I thought were political and should not be charged to the taxpayers.

Let me say, incidentally, that some of you may say, "Well, that is all right, Senator, that is your explanation, but have you got any proof?" And I would like to tell you this evening that just an hour ago we received an independent audit of this entire fund. I suggested to Governor Sherman Adams, who is the chief of staff of the Eisenhower campaign, that an independent audit and legal report be obtained, and I have that audit in my hand.

It is an audit made by Price Waterhouse & Co. firm, and the legal opinion by Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher, lawyers in Los Angeles, the biggest law firm, and incidentally, one of the best ones in Los Angeles.

I am proud to report to you tonight that this audit and legal opinion is being forwarded to General Eisenhower and I would like to read to you the opinion that was prepared by Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher, based on all the pertinent laws, and statutes, together with the audit report prepared by the certified public accountants.

It is our conclusion that Senator Nixon did not obtain any financial gain from the collection and disbursement of the funds by Dana Smith; that Senator Nixon did not violate any federal or state law by reason of the operation of the fund; and that neither the portion of the fund paid by Dana Smith directly to third persons, nor the portion paid to Senator Nixon, to reimburse him for office expenses, constituted income in a sense which was either reportable or taxable as income under income tax laws.

Signed--Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher, by Elmo Conley

That is not Nixon speaking, but it is an independent audit which was requested because I want the American people to know all the facts and I am not afraid of having independent people go in and check the facts, and that is exactly what they did.

But then I realized that there are still some who may say, and rightly so--and let me say that I recognize that some will continue to smear regardless of what the truth may be--but that there has been understandably, some honest misunderstanding on this matter, and there are some that will say, "Well, maybe you were able, Senator, to fake the thing. How can we believe what you say--after all, is there a possibility that maybe you got some sums in cash? Is there a possibility that you might have feathered your own nest?" And so now, what I am going to do--and incidentally this is unprecedented in the history of American politics--I am going at this time to give to this television and radio audience, a complete financial history, everything I have earned, everything I have spent and everything I own, and I want you to know the facts.

I will have to start early, I was born in 1913. Our family was one of modest circumstances, and most of my early life was spent in a store out in East Whittier. It was a grocery store, one of those family enterprises.

The only reason we were able to make it go was because my mother and dad had five boys, and we all worked in the store. I worked my way through college, and, to a great extent, through law school. And then in 1940, probably the best thing that ever happened to me happened. I married Pat who is sitting over here.

We had a rather difficult time after we were married, like so many of the young couples who might be listening to us. I practiced law. She continued to teach school.

Then, in 1942, I went into the service. Let me say that my service record was not a particularly unusual one. I went to the South Pacific. I guess I'm entitled to a couple of battle stars. I got a couple of letters of commendation. But I was just there when the bombs were falling. And then I returned. I returned to the United States, and in 1946, I ran for Congress. When we came out of the war--Pat and I--Pat during the war had worked as a stenographer, and in a bank, and as an economist for a government agency--and when we came out, the total of our savings, from both my law practice, her teaching and all the time I was in the war, the total for that entire period was just less than $10,000--every cent of that, incidentally, was in government bonds--well, that's where we start, when I go into politics.

Now, whatever I earned since I went into politics--well, here it is. I jotted it down. Let me read the notes.

First of all, I have had my salary as a Congressman and as a Senator.

Second, I have received a total in this past six years of $1,600 from estates which were in my law firm at the time that I severed my connection with it. And, incidentally, as I said before, I have not engaged in any legal practice, and have not accepted any fees from business that came into the firm after I went into politics.

I have made an average of approximately $1,500 a year from nonpolitical speaking engagements and lectures.

And then, unfortunately, we have inherited little money. Pat sold her interest in her father's estate for $3,000, and I inherited $1,500 from my grandfather. We lived rather modestly.

For four years we lived in an apartment in Parkfairfax, Alexandria Virginia. The rent was $80 a month. And we saved for a time when we could buy a house. Now that was what we took in.

What did we do with this money? What do we have today to show for it? This will surprise you because it is so little. I suppose as standards generally go of people in public life.

First of all, we've got a house in Washington, which cost $41,000 and on which we owe $20,000. We have a house in Whittier, California which cost $13,000 and on which we owe $3,000. My folks are living there at the present time.

I have just $4,000 in life insurance, plus my GI policy which I have never been able to convert, and which will run out in two years.

I have no life insurance whatever on Pat. I have no life insurance on our two youngsters, Patricia and Julie.

I own a 1950 Oldsmobile car. We have our furniture. We have no stocks and bonds of any type. We have no interest, direct or indirect, in any business. Now that is what we have. What do we owe?

Well, in addition to the mortgages, the $20,000 mortgage on the house in Washington and the $10,000 mortgage on the house in Whittier, I owe $4,000 to the Riggs Bank in Washington D.C. with an interest at 4 percent.

I owe $3,500 to my parents, and the interest on that loan, which I pay regularly, because it is a part of the savings they made through the years they were working so hard--I pay regularly 4 percent interest. And then I have a $500 loan, which I have on my life insurance. Well, that's about it. That's what we have. And that's what we owe. It isn't very much.

But Pat and I have the satisfaction that every dime that we have got is honestly ours.

I should say this, that Pat doesn't have a mink coat. But she does have a respectable Republican cloth coat, and I always tell her she would look good in anything.

One other thing I probably should tell you, because if I don't they will probably be saying this about me, too. We did get something, a gift, after the election.

A man down in Texas heard Pat on the radio mention the fact that our two youngsters would like to have a dog, and, believe it or not, the day before we left on this campaign trip we got a message from Union Station in Baltimore, saying they had a package for us. We went down to get it. You know what it was?

It was a little cocker spaniel dog, in a crate that he had sent all the way from Texas, black and white, spotted, and our little girl Tricia, the six year old, named it Checkers.

And you know, the kids, like all kids, loved the dog, and I just want to say this, right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we are going to keep it.

It isn't easy to come before a nation-wide audience and bare your life, as I have done. But I want to say some things before I conclude, that I think most of you will agree on.

Mr. Mitchell, the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, made this statement that if a man couldn't afford to be in the United States Senate, he shouldn't run for senate. And I just want to make my position clear.

I don't agree with Mr. Mitchell when he says that only a rich man should serve his government in the United States Senate or Congress. I don't believe that represents the thinking of the Democratic Party, and I know it doesn't represent the thinking of the Republican Party.

I believe that it's fine that a man like Governor Stevenson, who inherited a fortune from his father, can run for President. But I also feel that it is essential in this country of ours that a man of modest means can also run for President, because, you know--remember Abraham Lincoln--you remember what he said--"God must have loved the common people, he made so many of them."

And now I'm going to suggest some courses of conduct.

First of all, you have read in the papers about other funds, now, Mr. Stevenson apparently had a couple. One of them in which a group of business people paid and helped to supplement the salaries of state employees. Here is where the money went directly into their pockets, and I think that what Mr. Stevenson should do should be to come before the American people, as I have, give the names of the people that contributed to that fund, give the names of the people who put this money into their pockets, at the same time that they were receiving money from their state government and see what favors, if any, they gave out for that.

I don't condemn Mr. Stevenson for what he did, but until the facts are in, there is a doubt that would be raised. And as far as Mr. Sparkman is concerned, I would suggest the same thing. He's had his wife on the payroll. I don't condemn him for that, but I think that he should come before the American people and indicate what outside sources of income he has had. I would suggest that under the circumstances both Mr. Sparkman and Mr. Stevenson should come before the American people, as I have, and make a complete financial statement as to their financial history, and if they don't, it will be an admission that they have something to hide.

And I think you will agree with me--because, folks, remember, a man that's to be President of the United States, a man that is to be Vice President of the United States, must have the confidence of all the people. And that's why I'm doing what I'm doing. And that is why I suggest that Mr. Stevenson and Mr. Sparkman, if they are under attack, that should be what they are doing.

Now let me say this: I know this is not the last of the smears. In spite of my explanation tonight, other smears will be made. Others have been made in the past. And the purpose of the smears, I know, is this, to silence me, to make me let up.

Well, they just don't know who they are dealing with. I'm going to tell you this: I remember in the dark days of the Hiss trial some of the same columnists, some of the same radio commentators who are attacking me now and misrepresenting my position, were violently opposing me at the time I was after Alger Hiss. But I continued to fight because I knew I was right, and I can say to this great television and radio audience that I have no apologies to the American people for my part in putting Alger Hiss where he is today. And as far as this is concerned, I intend to continue to fight.

Why do I feel so deeply? Why do I feel that in spite of the smears, the misunderstanding, the necessity for a man to come up here and bare his soul? And I want to tell you why.

Because, you see, I love my country. And I think my country is in danger. And I think the only man that can save America at this time is the man that's running for President, on my ticket, Dwight Eisenhower.

You say, why do I think it is in danger? And I say look at the record. Seven years of the Truman-Acheson administration, and what's happened? Six hundred million people lost to Communists.

And a war in Korea in which we have lost 117,000 American casualties, and I say that those in the State Department that made the mistakes which caused that war and which resulted in those losses should be kicked out of the State Department just as fast as we can get them out of there.

And let me say that I know Mr. Stevenson won't do that because he defends the Truman policy, and I know that Dwight Eisenhower will do that, and he will give America the leadership that it needs.

Take the problem of corruption. You have read about the mess in Washington. Mr. Stevenson can't clean it up because he was picked by the man, Truman, under whose Administration the mess was made.

You wouldn't trust the man who made the mess to clean it up. That is Truman. And by the same token you can't trust the man who was picked by the man who made the mess to clean it up and that's Stevenson. And so I say, Eisenhower who owes nothing to Truman, nothing to the big city bosses--he is the man who can clean up the mess in Washington.

Take Communism. I say as far as that subject is concerned the danger is greater to America. In the Hiss case they got the secrets which enabled them to break the American secret State Department code.

They got secrets in the atomic bomb case which enabled them to get the secret of the atomic bomb five years before they would have gotten it by their own devices. And I say that any man who called the Alger Hiss case a red herring isn't fit to be President of the United States.

I say that a man who, like Mr. Stevenson, has pooh-poohed and ridiculed the Communist threat in the United States--he has accused us, that they have attempted to expose the Communists, of looking for Communists in the Bureau of Fisheries and Wildlife. I say that a man who says that isn't qualified to be President of the United States.

And I say that the only man who can lead us into this fight to rid the government of both those who are Communists and those who have corrupted this government is Eisenhower, because General Eisenhower, you can be sure, recognizes the problem, and knows how to handle it.

Let me say this, finally. This evening I want to read to you just briefly excerpts from a letter that I received, a letter, which after all this is over, no one can take away from us. It reads as follows:

Dear Senator Nixon,

Since I am only 19 years of age, I can't vote in this presidential election, but believe me if I could, you and General Eisenhower would certainly get my vote. My husband is in the Fleet Marines in Korea. He is in the front lines. And we have a two month old son he has never seen. And I feel confident that with great Americans like you and General Eisenhower in the White House, lonely Americans like myself will be united with their loved ones now in Korea. I only pray to God that you won't be too late. Enclosed is a small check to help you with your campaign. Living on $85 a month it is all I can do.

Folks, it is a check for $10, and it is one that I shall never cash. And let me just say this: We hear a lot about prosperity these days, but I say why can't we have prosperity built on peace, rather than prosperity built on war? Why can't we have prosperity and an honest government in Washington D.C. at the same time?

Believe me, we can. And Eisenhower is the man that can lead the crusade to bring us that kind of prosperity.

And now, finally, I know that you wonder whether or not I am going to stay on the Republican ticket or resign. Let me say this: I don't believe that I ought to quit, because I am not a quitter. And, incidentally, Pat is not a quitter. After all, her name is Patricia Ryan and she was born on St. Patrick's day, and you know the Irish never quit.

But the decision, my friends, is not mine. I would do nothing that would harm the possibilities of Dwight Eisenhower to become President of the United States. And for that reason I am submitting to the Republican National Committee tonight through this television broadcast the decision which it is theirs to make. Let them decide whether my position on the ticket will help or hurt. And I am going to ask you to help them decide. Wire and write the Republican National Committee whether you think I should stay on or whether I should get off. And whatever their decision, I will abide by it.

But let me just say this last word. Regardless of what happens, I am going to continue this fight. I am going to campaign up and down America until we drive the crooks and the Communists and those that defend them out of Washington, and remember folks, Eisenhower is a great man. Folks, he is a great man, and a vote for Eisenhower is a vote for what is good for America."

1959 – Iowa farmer and corn breeder Roswell Garst hosts Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev.

1959 – The MS Princess of Tasmania, Australia’s first passenger roll-on/roll-off diesel ferry, makes her maiden voyage across Bass Strait.

1962 – The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City opens with the completion of the first building, the Philharmonic Hall (now Avery Fisher Hall) home of the New York Philharmonic.

1969 – The Chicago Eight trial opens in Chicago.

1972 – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos announces over television and radio the implementation of martial law.

1973 – Juan Perón returns to power in Argentina.

1983 – Saint Kitts and Nevis joins the United Nations.

1983 – Gerrie Coetzee of South Africa becomes the first African boxing world heavyweight champion.

1983 – Gulf Air Flight 771 is bombed, killing all 117 people on board.

1986 – Jim Deshaies of the Houston Astros sets the major-league record by striking out the first eight batters of the game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

1988 – José Canseco of the Oakland Athletics becomes the first member of the 40-40 club.

1992 – A large Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb destroys forensic laboratories in Belfast.

1999 – Celebrate Bisexuality Day was first observed in the United States.

1999 – NASA announces that it has lost contact with the Mars Climate Orbiter.

1999 – Qantas Flight 1 overruns the runway in Bangkok during a storm. Although some passengers only receive minor injuries, it is still the worst crash in Qantas's history since 1960.

2002 – The first public version of the web browser Mozilla Firefox ("Phoenix 0.1") is released.

2004 – Hurricane Jeanne: At least 1,070 in Haiti are reported to have been killed by floods.

2008 – Kauhajoki school shooting: Matti Saari kills 10 people before committing suicide.

1846 - Location of Neptune discovered.

622 – Prophet Muhammad completes his hijra from Mecca to Medina.

1180 – Manuel I Komnenos, last Emperor of the Komnenian restoration dies. The Byzantine Empire slips into terminal decline.

1645 – English Civil War: Royalists under the personal command of King Charles I suffered a significant defeat in the Battle of Rowton Heath.

1664 – The Dutch Republic surrenders New Amsterdam to England.

1674 – Second Tantrik Coronation of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

1780 – Benedict Arnold flees to British Army lines when the arrest of British Major John André exposes Arnold's plot to surrender West Point.

1789 – The United States Congress passes the Judiciary Act which creates the office of the United States Attorney General and the federal judiciary system, and orders the composition of the Supreme Court of the United States.

1841 – The Sultan of Brunei cedes Sarawak to the United Kingdom.

1852 – The first airship powered by (a steam) engine, created by Henri Giffard, travels 17 miles (27 km) from Paris to Trappes.

1869 – "Black Friday": Gold prices plummet after Ulysses S. Grant orders the Treasury to sell large quantities of gold after Jay Gould and James Fisk plot to control the market.

1877 – Battle of Shiroyama, decisive victory of the Imperial Japanese Army over the Satsuma Rebellion.

1890 – Wilford Woodruff, President of the Mormon Church, wrote the first draft of a manifesto which officially disavowed the continuing practice of plural marriage.

1906 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt proclaims Devils Tower in Wyoming as the nation's first National Monument.

1906 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt proclaims Devils Tower in Wyoming as the nation's first National Monument.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/46/Devils_Tower_CROP.jpg/284px-Devils_Tower_CROP.jpg

1914 – World War I: The Siege of Przemyśl (present-day Poland) begins.

1932 – Gandhi and Dr. B. R. Ambedkar agree to the Poona Pact, which reserved seats in the Indian provincial legislatures for the "Depressed Classes" (Untouchables).

1935 – Earl Bascom and Weldon Bascom produce the first rodeo ever held outdoors under electric lights at Columbia, Mississippi

1937 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Chinese Eighth Route Army gains a minor, but morale-boosting victory in the Battle of Pingxingguan.

1946 – Clark Clifford and George Elsey, military advisers to U.S. President Harry S. Truman, presented him with a top-secret report on the Soviet Union that would form the basis of the U.S. policy of containment.

1946 – Cathay Pacific Airways is founded in Hong Kong.

1948 – The Honda Motor Company is founded.

1950 – Forest fires black out the sun over portions of Canada and New England. A blue moon (in the astronomical sense) is seen as far away as Europe.

1957 – Barcelona's Camp Nou (pictured), currently the largest stadium in Europe with a seating capacity of 99,354, opened.

1957 – Barcelona's Camp Nou (pictured), currently the largest stadium in Europe with a seating capacity of 99,354, opened.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ce/CampNouGrandstand.jpg/100px-CampNouGrandstand.jpg

1957 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends 101st Airborne Division troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce desegregation.

1960 – USS Enterprise (CVN-65), the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is launched.

1962 – United States court of appeals orders the University of Mississippi to admit James Meredith.

1968 – 60 Minutes debuts on CBS.

1968 – Swaziland joins the United Nations.

1973 – Guinea-Bissau declares its independence from Portugal.

1979 – Compu-Serve launches the first consumer internet service, which features the first public electronic mail service.

1988 – National League for Democracy is formed by Aung San Suu Kyi and various others to help fight against dictatorship in Myanmar.

1990 – Periodic Great White Spot is observed on Saturn.

1996 – Representatives from 71 nations signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which has not yet come into force because not enough signatories have ratified it.

2005 – Hurricane Rita makes landfall in the United States, devastating Beaumont, Texas and portions of southwestern Louisiana.

2007 – Between 30,000 and 100,000 people take part in anti-government protests in Yangon, Burma, the largest in 20 years.

2008 – The Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago is topped off at 1,389 feet (423 m), at the time becoming the world's highest residence above ground-level.

2009 – The G20 summit begins in Pittsburgh with 30 global leaders in attendance. It marks the first use of LRAD in U.S. history.

787 - The Second Nicene Council opened under Pope Hadrian I. Numbered by some as the 7th of the church's 21 ecumenical councils, Nicea II condemned iconoclasm (belief that the veneration of Christian images and relics is idolatry).

1889 - In Holland, the Declaration of Utrecht was signed and became the doctrinal basis of the Old Catholic Church. ("Old Catholics" reject clerical celibacy, papal authority and the Council of Trent decisions.) Today in Europe, Old Catholics are active in Holland, Germany and Switzerland.

1956 - In Minneapolis-St. Paul, a congregation of worshipers was organized into the first Southern Baptist church to be established in Minnesota.

1977 - Rev. John T. Walker was installed as the sixth -- and first African American -- bishop of the Episcopal diocese in Washington, D.C.

275 – In Rome, (after the assassination of Aurelian), the Senate proclaims Marcus Claudius Tacitus Emperor.

303 – On a voyage preaching the gospel, Saint Fermin of Pamplona is beheaded in Amiens, France.

1066 – The Battle of Stamford Bridge marks the end of the Viking invasions of England.

1396 – Ottoman wars in Europe: Ottoman forces under Bayezid I (pictured) defeated a Christian alliance led by Sigismund of Hungary in the Battle of Nicopolis near present-day Nikopol, Bulgaria.

1396 – Ottoman wars in Europe: Ottoman forces under Bayezid I (pictured) defeated a Christian alliance led by Sigismund of Hungary in the Battle of Nicopolis near present-day Nikopol, Bulgaria.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/59/Bayezid_I_-_Manyal_Palace_Museum.JPG/100px-Bayezid_I_-_Manyal_Palace_Museum.JPG

1513 – Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa reaches what would become known as the Pacific Ocean.

1555 – The Peace of Augsburg is signed in Augsburg by Charles V and the princes of the Schmalkaldic League.

1690 – Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestick, the first newspaper to appear in the Americas, is published for the first and only time.

1775 – Ethan Allen surrenders to British forces after attempting to capture Montreal during the Battle of Longue-Pointe. At the same time, Benedict Arnold and his expeditionary company set off from Fort Western, bound for Quebec City (Invasion of Canada (1775)).

1789 – The U.S. Congress passes twelve amendments to the United States Constitution: the Congressional Apportionment Amendment (which was never ratified), the Congressional Compensation Amendment, and the ten that are known as the Bill of Rights.

1804 – The Teton Sioux (a subdivision of the Lakota) demand one of the boats from the Lewis and Clark Expedition as a toll for moving further upriver.

1846 – U.S. forces led by Zachary Taylor capture the Mexican city of Monterrey.

1868 – The Russian frigate Alexander Nevsky wrecked off northwestern Jutland, nearly drowning Grand Duke Alexei.

1890 – The U.S. Congress establishes Sequoia National Park.

1906 – In the presence of the king and before a great crowd, Leonardo Torres Quevedo successfully demonstrates the invention of the Telekino in the port of Bilbao, guiding a boat from the shore, in what is considered the birth of the remote control.

1911 – Ground is broken for Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts.

1912 – Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is founded in New York, New York.

1915 – World War I: The Second Battle of Champagne begins.

1929 – Jimmy Doolittle performs the first blind flight from Mitchel Field proving that full instrument flying from take off to landing is possible.

1942 – World War II: Swiss Police Instruction of September 25, 1942 – this instruction denied entry into Switzerland to Jewish refugees.

1944 – World War II: Surviving elements of the British 1st Airborne Division withdraw from Arnhem in the Netherlands, thus ending the Battle of Arnhem and Operation Market Garden.

1955 – The Royal Jordanian Air Force is founded.

1956 – TAT-1, the first submarine transatlantic telephone cable system, is inaugurated.

1957 – Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, is integrated by the use of United States Army troops.

1959 – Solomon Bandaranaike, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka is mortally wounded by a Buddhist monk, Talduwe Somarama, and dies the next day.

1962 – The People's Democratic Republic of Algeria is formally proclaimed. Ferhat Abbas is elected President of the provisional government.

1970 – Cease-fire between Jordan and the Fedayeen ends fighting triggered by four hijackings on September 6 and 9.

1972 – In a referendum, the people of Norway reject membership of the European Community.

1977 – About 4,200 people took part in the first running of the Chicago Marathon.

1977 – About 4,200 people took part in the first running of the Chicago Marathon.
How many are still running today?

1978 – PSA Flight 182, a Boeing 727-214, collides in mid-air with a Cessna 172 and crashes in San Diego, California, resulting in the deaths of 144 people.

1981 – Sandra Day O'Connor becomes the 102nd person sworn in as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and the first woman to hold the office.

1981 – Belize joins the United Nations.

1983 – In one of the largest prison escapes in British history, 38 Provisional Irish Republican Army prisoners hijacked a prison meals lorry and smashed their way out of HM Prison Maze in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

1992 – NASA launched a $511 million probe to Mars in the first U.S. mission to the planet in 17 years. Eleven months later, the probe would fail.

1996 – The last Magdalene asylum, an Irish institution to rehabilitate so-called "fallen" women, was closed.

2002 – The Vitim event, a possible bolide impact in Siberia, Russia.

2003 – A magnitude-8.0 earthquake strikes just offshore Hokkaidō, Japan.

2008 – China launches the spacecraft Shenzhou 7.

2009 – U.S. President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in a joint TV appearance for a G-20 summit, accused Iran of building a secret nuclear enrichment facility.

2010 – Mahmoud Abbas speaks at United Nations General Assembly to request that Israel end its policy of building settlements in the West Bank.

2011 - Patrick Makau Musyoki runs an (unofficial) marathon world record holder with a time of 02:03:38 in the 2011 Berlin Marathon

1555 - The Peace of Augsburg was signed, resolving bitter disputes between Protestants and Catholics in the German states. Its wider significance, however, meant that both the political unity of Germany and the medieval unity of Christendom was permanently dissolved.

1789 - The establishment of religion on a national level was expressly prohibited in the U.S. with the adoption of the First Amendment, the opening words of which read: 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.' Final ratification of the First Amendment came in 1791.

1872 - Death of Peter Cartwright, 87, early American Methodist circuit rider. Converted at age 29, Cartwright possessed a rough, uneducated and eccentric personality; but he spent over 50 of his 87 years spreading the Gospel through the Midwestern frontiers of Kentucky and Illinois.

1890 - Polygamy was officially banned by the Mormon Church. (This announcement followed on the heels of an 1890 Supreme Court ruling denying all privileges of U.S. citizenship to Mormons who practiced this outlawed form of marriage.)

1908 - Death of English Old Testament textual scholar Henry A. Redpath, 60. From 1892-1906, Redpath and Edwin Hatch compiled "A Concordance to the Septuagint and Other Greek Versions of the Old Testament"-- still in print today!

1981 - Rolling Stones begin their 6th US tour (JFK Stadium, Phila)

1580 – The Golden Hind sailed into Plymouth, England, as explorer Francis Drake completed his circumnavigation of the globe.

1687 – The Parthenon (pictured) in Athens was partially destroyed during an armed conflict between the Venetians under Francesco Morosini and Ottoman forces.

1687 – The Parthenon (pictured) in Athens was partially destroyed during an armed conflict between the Venetians under Francesco Morosini and Ottoman forces.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/Ac.parthenon5.jpg/100px-Ac.parthenon5.jpg

1957 – West Side Story, a musical written by Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim and based loosely on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, made its debut on Broadway.

1983 – The racing yacht Australia II, captained by John Bertrand, won the America's Cup, ending the New York Yacht Club's 132-year defense of the trophy.

2002 – MV Le Joola, a Senegalese government-owned ferry, capsized off the coast of The Gambia, resulting in the deaths of at least 1,863 people.

46 BC – Julius Caesar dedicates a temple to his mythical ancestor Venus Genetrix in accordance with a vow he made at the battle of Pharsalus.

715 – Ragenfrid defeats Theudoald at the Battle of Compiègne.

1212 – Golden Bull of Sicily is certified as an hereditary royal title in Bohemia for the Přemyslid dynasty.

1687 – The city council of Amsterdam votes to support William of Orange's invasion of England, which became the Glorious Revolution.

1783 – The first battle of Shays' Rebellion begins.

1789 – Thomas Jefferson is appointed the first United States Secretary of State, John Jay is appointed the first Chief Justice of the United States, Samuel Osgood is appointed the first United States Postmaster General, and Edmund Randolph is appointed the first United States Attorney General.

1792 – Marc-David Lasource begins accusing Maximilien Robespierre of wanting a dictatorship for France.

1810 – A new Act of Succession is adopted by the Riksdag of the Estates and Jean Baptiste Bernadotte becomes heir to the Swedish throne.

1872 – The first Shriners Temple (called Mecca) is established in New York City.

1907 – New Zealand and Newfoundland each become dominions within the British Empire.

1908 – Ed Reulbach becomes the first and only pitcher to throw two shutouts in one day against the Brooklyn Dodgers.

1914 – The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is established by the Federal Trade Commission Act.

1917 – World War I: The Battle of Polygon Wood begins.

1918 – World War I: The Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the bloodiest single battle in American history, begins.

1923 – Gustav Stresemann resumes the Weimar Republic's payment of reparations.

1934 – Steamship RMS Queen Mary is launched.

1942 – The Holocaust: August Frank, a higher official of the SS concentration camp administration department, issues a memorandum containing a great deal of operational detail in how Jews should be "evacuated".

1944 – World War II: Operation Market Garden fails.

1944 – World War II: On the central front of the Gothic Line Brazilian troops control the Serchio valley region after ten days of fighting.

1950 – United Nations troops recapture Seoul from North Korean forces.

1950 – Indonesia is admitted to the United Nations.

1954 – Japanese rail ferry Toya Maru sinks during a typhoon in the Tsugaru Strait, Japan killing 1,172.

1959 – Typhoon Vera, the strongest typhoon to hit Japan in recorded history, makes landfall, killing 4,580 people and leaving nearly 1.6 million others homeless.

1960 – In Chicago, the first televised debate takes place between presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy.

1960 – Fidel Castro announces Cuba's support for the U.S.S.R.

1970 – The Laguna Fire starts in San Diego County, California, burning 175,425 acres (710 km²).

1971 – The Freetown Christiania was founded.

1973 – Concorde makes its first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in record-breaking time.

1981 – Baseball: Nolan Ryan sets a Major League record by throwing his fifth no-hitter.

1983 – Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov averts a likely worldwide nuclear war by correctly identifying a report of an incoming nuclear missile as a computer error and not an American first strike.

1983 – Australia II wins the America's Cup, ending the longest winning streak in sporting history.

1984 – The United Kingdom agrees to the handover of Hong Kong

1997 – A Garuda Indonesia Airbus A-300 crashes near Medan, Indonesia, airport, killing 234.

1997 – An earthquake strikes the Italian regions of Umbria and the Marche, causing part of the Basilica of St. Francis at Assisi to collapse.

2000 – Anti-globalization protests in Prague (some 20,000 protesters) turn violent during the IMF and World Bank summits.

2000 – The MS Express Samina sinks off Paros in the Agean sea killing 80 passengers.

2001 – Polish Wikipedia was started.

2008 – Swiss pilot and inventor Yves Rossy becomes first person to fly a jet engine-powered wing across the English Channel.

2009 – Typhoon Ketsana (2009) hit the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, causing 700 fatalities.

1997 – The Google internet search engine retrospectively claims this as its birthday.

1968 – The stage musical Hair opens at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London, where it played 1,998 performances until its closure was forced by the roof collapsing in July 1973.

1997 – The Google internet search engine retrospectively claims this as its birthday.
Wiki has 1997 and Google has 1998?

1422 – The Treaty of Melno was signed between the Teutonic Knights, the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, establishing the Prussian–Lithuanian border, which afterwards remained unchanged for about 500 years.

1916 – Lij Iyasu (pictured), the emperor-designate of Ethiopia, was deposed in favor of his aunt, Zewditu.

1916 – Lij Iyasu (pictured), the emperor-designate of Ethiopia, was deposed in favor of his aunt, Zewditu.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/Yasu_V.jpg/63px-Yasu_V.jpg

1988 – Led by pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, the political party National League for Democracy was founded in Burma.

1996 – The Taliban drove Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani out of Kabul and established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

2008 – During the Shenzhou 7 mission, Zhai Zhigang became the first Chinese citizen to carry out a spacewalk.

Wiki has 1997 and Google has 1998?
Now correctly states 1998.

489 – Odoacer attacks Theodoric at the Battle of Verona, and is defeated again.

1066 – William the Conqueror and his army set sail from the mouth of the Somme River, beginning the Norman Conquest of England.

1331 – The Battle of Płowce between the Kingdom of Poland and the Teutonic Order is fought.

1529 – The Siege of Vienna begins when Suleiman I attacks the city.

1540 – The Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) receives its charter from Pope Paul III.

1590 – Pope Urban VII dies 13 days after being chosen as the Pope, making his reign the shortest papacy in history.

1605 – The armies of Sweden are defeated by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Battle of Kircholm.

1669 – The Venetians surrender the fortress of Candia to the Ottomans, thus ending the 21-year long Siege of Candia.