Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1788

Maryland became the seventh state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1789

The crew of the British ship Bounty mutineed, setting Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors adrift in a launch in the South Pacific.

1940

Glenn Miller and his orchestra recorded ''Pennsylvania 6-5000'' for RCA Victor.

1945

Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, center, and his mistress, Clara Petacci, right, were executed by partisans as they attempted to flee the country.

1947

A six-man expedition sailed from Peru aboard a balsa wood raft named the Kon-Tiki on a 101-day journey across the Pacific Ocean to Polynesia.

1952

War with Japan officially ended as a treaty that had been signed by the United States and 47 other countries took effect.

1967

Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali refused to be inducted into the Army.

1969

French President Charles de Gaulle resigned.

1980

President Carter accepted the resignation of Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, who had opposed the failed rescue mission aimed at freeing American hostages in Iran.

1990

The musical ''A Chorus Line'' closed after 6,137 performances on Broadway.

1992

The Agriculture Department unveiled a pyramid-shaped recommended-diet chart that cost nearly $1 million to develop.

1994

Former CIA official Aldrich Ames, who had betrayed U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union and then Russia, pleaded guilty to espionage and tax evasion, and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

1996

President Clinton gave 4 1/2 hours of videotaped testimony as a defense witness in the criminal trial of his former Whitewater business partners.

1999

In a sharp repudiation of President Clinton's policies, the House rejected, on a tie vote of 213-213, a measure expressing support for NATO's five-week-old air campaign against Yugoslavia; the House also voted 249-180 to limit the president's authority to

1758

The fifth president of the United States, James Monroe, was born in Westmoreland County, Va.