Today in History

1620   Leaders of the Mayflower expedition frame the "Mayflower Compact," designed to bolster unity among the settlers.
 1783   Jean de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes make the first free-flight ascent in a balloon to over 500 feet in Paris.  
1789   North Carolina ratifies the Constitution, becoming the 12th state to do it.  
1855   Franklin Colman, a pro-slavery Missourian, guns down Charles Dow, a Free Stater from Ohio, near Lawrence, Kansas.  
1864   From Georgia, Confederate General John B. Hood launches the Franklin-Nashville Campaign into Tennessee.  
1904   Motorized omnibuses replace horse-drawn cars in Paris.  
1906   In San Juan, President Theodore Roosevelt pledges citizenship for Puerto Rican people.
1907   Cunard liner Mauritania sets a new speed record for steamship travel, 624 nautical miles in a one day run.  
1911   Suffragettes storm Parliament in London. All are arrested and all choose prison terms.
1917   German ace Rudolf von Eschwege is killed over Macedonia when he attacks a booby-trapped observation balloon packed with explosives.  
1918   The last German troops leave Alsace-Lorraine, France.  
1927   Police turn machine guns on striking Colorado mine workers, killing five and wounding 20.  
1934   A New York court rules Gloria Vanderbilt unfit for custody of her daughter.
1934   Cole Porter's musical Anything Goes premieres at New York's Alvin Theater.  
1949   The United Nations grants Libya its independence by 1952.  
1967   President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the air quality act, allotting $428 million for the fight against pollution.  
1970   U.S. planes conduct widespread bombing raids in North Vietnam.  
1985   US Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard arrested for spying and passing classified information to Israel; he received a life sentence on Nov. 1, 1987.  
1986   The Justice Department begins an inquiry into the National Security Council into what will become known as the Iran-Contra scandal.  
1995   The Dayton Peace Agreement is initialed at Wright Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio; the agreement, formally ratified in Paris on Dec. 14, ends the three-and-a-half year war between Bosnia and Herzegovina.  
2006   Anti-Syrian Lebanese Minister and MP Pierre Gemayel assassinated in Beirut.