Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1639

Harvard University was named for clergyman John Harvard.

1781

The planet Uranus was discovered by Sir William Herschel.

1852

"Uncle Sam" made his debut as a cartoon character in the New York Lantern.

1868

The impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson began in the United States Senate.

1884

Standard Time was adopted throughout the United States.

1925

A law went into effect in Tennessee prohibiting the teaching of evolution.

1933

Banks began to re-open after a 'holiday' declared by President Roosevelt.

1947

The Lerner and Loewe musical "Brigadoon" opened on Broadway.

1964

Thirty-eight residents of a New York City neighborhood failed to respond to the cries of Kitty Genovese, 28, as she was stabbed to death.

1980

A jury in Winamac, Ind., found Ford Motor Co. innocent of reckless homicide in the fiery deaths of three young women riding in a Ford Pinto.

1988

Yielding to student protests, the board of trustees of Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., a liberal arts college for the hearing-impaired, chose I. King Jordan to become the school's first deaf president.

1996

A gunman burst into an elementary school in Dunblane, Scotland, and opened fire on a class of kindergartners, killing 16 children and one teacher before killing himself.

1998

Sgt. Maj. Gene McKinney, once Army's top enlisted man, was acquitted of pressuring military women for sex, but was convicted of trying to persuade his chief accuser to lie.

1998

Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II, D-Mass., announced he would not seek a seventh term.

1901

The 23rd president of the United States, Benjamin Harrison, died in Indianapolis.

1906

American suffragist Susan B. Anthony died in Rochester, N.Y.

1938

Famed attorney Clarence S. Darrow died in Chicago.

1999

Playwright Garson Kanin died in New York at age 86.