The 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution went into effect on this day in 1920. The amendment prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex in the voting booth.
Investigators pinpoint the cause of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster on this day in 2003.
NASA space shuttle program manager Ron Dittemore holds a piece of insulation foam from an external fuel tank to describe how a piece hit the underside of the shuttle during the craft’s liftoff.
It was on this day in 1974.
Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974)
Mount Vesuvius erupted killing approximately 20,000 people on this day in 79 AD. The cities of Pompeii, Stabiae and Herculaneum were buried in volcanic ash.
The above Photos of Plaster casts were made from actual victims trapped in the lava flows of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, Italy.
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Florida City: Gary Davis cradles his chihuahua Boo Boo in front of his mobile home in the Goldcoaster Mobile Home Park the morning after Hurricane Andrew.
Washington, DC, was invaded by British forces that set fire to the White House and Capitol on this day in 1814.
An artists depiction of the White House ruins after the conflagration of August 24, 1814.
The planet Pluto was reclassified as a "dwarf planet" by the International Astronomical Union on this day in 2006. Pluto’s status was changed due to the IAU’s new rules for an object qualifying as a planet. Pluto met two of the three rules because it orbits the sun and is large enough to assume a nearly round shape. However, since Pluto has an oblong orbit and overlaps the orbit of Neptune it disqualified Pluto as a planet.
On this day in 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the U.S. non-stop. The trip from Los Angeles, CA to Newark, NJ, took about 19 hours.
John Herbert Dillinger (June 22, 1903 – July 22, 1934)
John Dillinger was an American gangster in the Depression-era who was shot and killed by the special agents on July 22, 1934 at approximately 10:40 p.m, according to a New York Times report the next day. His death came only two months after the deaths of fellow notorious criminals Bonnie and Clyde.
A crowd formed at Chicago’s Biograph Theater shortly after Dillinger was killed there by FBI agents.
In northern Iraq on this day in 2003, Saddam Hussein’s sons Odai and Qusai died after a gunfight with U.S. forces.
The September 11 commission’s final report was released on this day in 2004. The 575-page report concluded that hijackers exploited "deep institutional failings within our government." The report was released to White House officials the day before.
The members of The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.
Walter Frederick Morrison (January 16, 1920 – February 9, 2010)
Inventor and entrepreneur Walter ”Fred” Morrison introduced the Frisbee, as we know it today, on this day in 1957. It was originally called the Flyin-Saucer.
William Frisbie opened the Frisbie Pie Company in 1871 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Students from nearby universities discovered that the empty pie tins (above) could be tossed and caught, providing endless hours of game and sport.
On this day in 1776, Richard Henry Lee’s resolution to break away from Britain was adopted by the Continental Congress.
On this day in 1964, U.S. President Johnson signed the "Civil Rights Act of 1964" into law. The act made it illegal in the United states to discriminate against others because of their race.
On this day in 1937, American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart disappeared in the Central Pacific during an attempt to fly around the world at the equator.