On this day in 1998, President Bill Clinton, America’s chief
executive, was impeached on two charges of perjury and
obstruction of justice by the U.S. House of Representatives,
becoming only the second president to be ordered to stand
trial in the Senate since Andrew Johnson in 1868.

President Bill Clinton speaks about the Monica Lewinsky scandal at 
the White House on January 26, 1998 as First Lady Hillary Clinton
looks on.

On this day in 1972, Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific,
ending the Apollo program of manned lunar landings.

The three astronauts (from left to right – Eugene Cernan, Ronald
Evans and Harrison Schmitt) get the red-carpet welcome back.

CARLATA BRADLEY

Jefferson Davis died in New Orleans on this day in 1889. He was
the first and only president of the Confederate States of America
and the highest ranking confederate leader of the South.

On this day in 1957, America’s first attempt at putting a satellite into
orbit failed when the Vanguard TV-3 launch vehicle lost thrust after
lift-off and exploded on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, FL. The
launch was in response to the Soviet Union’s orbiting of Sputnik l.

ED DANAHUE

On this day in 1938, Orson Welles’ "The War of the Worlds" aired on
CBS radio. The belief that the realistic radio dramatization was a live news event about a Martian invasion caused panic among listeners.

Welles takes questions from reporters at a press conference the day
after the broadcast, on October 31, 1938. He told them that no one connected with the broadcast had any idea it would cause panic.

George Orson Welles
(May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985)

TIM MAGUIRE

America’s Great Depression began with the crash of the Wall Street
stock market on this day in 1929.

A crowd of people gather outside the New York Stock Exchange following the Crash of 1929.

On this day in 1998, the space shuttle Discovery blasted off with
John Glenn on board. Glenn was 77 years old at the time. In 1962
he became the first American to orbit the Earth.

The crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery (front row) Payload
Specialist Chiaki Mukai and Mission Commander Curt Brown;
Payload Specialist John Glenn; (C) and Mission Specialist
Pedro Duque depart the Operations & Checkout building and
head to the Space Shuttle Discovery to begin their mission
into space from the Kennedy Space Center, FL.

John Glenn (left) and Stephen Oswald sitting in the flight deck of Space Shuttle Discovery.

CARLATA BRADLEY

In London on this day in 2003, the last commercial supersonic
Concorde flight landed.

"The Last Touchdown." (With British: ‘Union Jack’ Flag & American: ‘Stars & Stripes’ Flag.)

On this day in 2002, The D.C. Sniper suspects were caught at
Myersville rest stop. Law enforcement officers search the car
that John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo were in when
police arrested them at the rest stop along I-70.  

John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo.

"The Bushmaster rifle used by convicted sniper John Allen
Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo is seen at the Montgomery
County Judicial Center after it was entered into evidence
during the murder trial.

The United Nations officially came into existence on this day in 1945, when representatives of 50 countries met in San Francisco at the
United Nations Conference on International Organization to draw
up the United Nations Charter.