Today in History

1791		Congress passes a resolution authorizing the U.S. Mint; legislation creating the mint will be passed on Apr. 2, 1792.
1803		The first impeachment trial of a U.S. Judge, John Pickering, begins.
1817		The first commercial steamboat route from Louisville to New Orleans is opened.
1845		Florida becomes the 27th U.S. state.
1857		Under pretexts, Britain and France declare war on China.
1861		The serfs of Russia are emancipated by Alexander II as part of a program of westernization.
1863		Lincoln signs the conscription act compelling U.S. citizens to report for duty in the Civil War or pay $300.00.
1877		Rutherford B. Hayes, the republican governor of Ohio is elected president, his election confirmed by an electoral commission after disputed election the previous November.
1878		Russia and the Ottomans sign the Treaty of San Stefano, granting independence to Serbia.
1905		The Russian Czar agrees to create an elected assembly.
1918		The Soviets and Germany sign a peace treaty at Brest-Litovsk depriving the Soviets of White Russia.
1919		Boeing flies the first U.S. international airmail from Vancouver, British Columbia to Seattle, Washington.
1923		The first issue of Time magazine is published. Its editor, Henry R. Luce, is just out of Yale.
1931		Herbert Hoover signs a bill that makes Francis Scott Key’s “Star Spangled Banner,” the national anthem.
1939		In Bombay, Gandhi begins a fast to protest the state’s autocratic rule.
1940		A Nazi air raid kills 108 on a British liner in the English Channel.
1941		Moscow denounces the Axis rule in Bulgaria.
1942		The RAF raids the industrial suburbs of Paris.
1945		Finland declares war on the Axis.
1952		The U.S. Supreme Court upholds New York’s Feinberg Law banning Communist teachers in the United States.
1969		Sirhan Sirhan testifies in a court in Los Angeles that he killed Robert Kennedy.
1973		Japan discloses its first defense plan since World War II.
1999		Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky appears on national television to explain her affair with President Bill Clinton.