The first 911 call was placed by Rep. Rankin Fite (right ) the Speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives, in the
town of Haleyville, AL. The phone used to make the first
U.S. 911 call is shown on display.

February 16, 1968 sees the first official "911" call placed in the
United States. Now taken for granted as first course of action
in the event of emergency by nearly all of the nation’s 327
million people, 911 is a relatively recent invention and was
still not standard across the United States for many years
after its adoption by Congress.

JOHN BELMONT

On this day in 1964, the U.S. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which gave President Johnson broad powers in dealing
with reported North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. forces.

U.S. forces landed at Guadalcanal on this day in 1942, marking the
start of the first major allied offensive in the Pacific during World
War II.

U.S. Marines rest in the field during the Guadalcanal campaign.

On this day in 1947, the balsa wood raft Kon-Tiki, which had carried
a six-man crew (below) 4,300 miles across the Pacific Ocean,crashed
into a reef in a Polynesian archipelago.

On this day in 2007, at the Giants home AT&T Park in San Francisco, Berry Bonds hit a 435 foot (133 m) home run, his 756th, off a pitch
from Mike Bacsik of the Washington Nationals, breaking the all-
time career home run record, formerly held by Hank Aaron. Bonds,
was indicted later that year on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying under oath to a federal grand jury looking
into steroid use among pro athletes.   

    
    
    
    
   

Barry Lamar Bonds turned 54 in July.

The "Telstar" communications satellite (above) sent the first live 
television broadcast to Europe.     

The first public images beamed from New York to the Goonhilly Satellite
Earth Station in Cornwall (above) on July 23 should have been of President
John F Kennedy, but because of a delay in the United States viewers were
first treated to footage of a baseball game which was being shown on US
television.

The satellite was used for several television demonstrations before going
out of service on February 21 the following year.

Control staff at the British Goonhilly Earth Station
in Cornwall.