On This Day April 10

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On This Day February 9

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History Highlights
History Highlights

1825 – With no presidential candidate receiving a majority of electoral votes in the election of 1824, the U.S. House of Representatives elects John Quincy Adams, who won fewer votes than Andrew Jackson in the popular election, as president of the United States.

1870 – The National Weather Service (NWS) is established under the U.S. Army Signal Corps.

1942 – The largest ocean liner in the world, the S.S. Normandie, burns and capsizes in New York Harbor during its conversion to a World War II troop transport ship. The Normandie had been the pride of the French ocean liner fleet. Built in 1935, she was the largest and fastest and most luxuriously appointed of the new ocean liners.

1965 – The U.S. sends its first combat troops to South Vietnam.

1971 – Apollo 14 returns safely to Earth following the third successful manned moon landing. 

1971 – Pitcher Leroy “Satchel” Paige becomes the first Negro League veteran to be nominated to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He is inducted six months later. Paige was known for his fastball and showmanship during a career that spanned five decades.

1992 – Three months after stunning the world with word that he had contracted the HIV virus and was immediately retiring from the Los Angeles Lakers, basketball great Magic Johnson returns to play in the 42nd NBA All-Star game in Orlando, Florida. After scoring 25 points and dishing out nine assists, Magic receives a standing ovation and is named the game’s Most Valuable Player.

On this Day May 27

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History Highlights
History Highlights

1930 – New York City’s iconic Chrysler Building opens to the public and stands as the world’s tallest building until surpassed by the Empire State Building in 1931.

1936 – The ocean liner RMS Queen Mary leaves Southampton on her maiden voyage to New York with more than 1,800 passengers aboard. The ship arrives safely five days later.

1937 – The majestic Golden Gate Bridge opens, creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County, California. San Franciscans throw a “fiesta” in honor of the new span. Schools, offices and stores either close or reduce staffing. By 6 that morning, 18,000 people are waiting to cross the span from both the sides.

1939 – A ship carrying more than 900 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution is turned away from Havana, Cuba. Only 28 immigrants are admitted into the country. After appeals to the U.S. and Canada for entry are rejected, the rest are forced to return to Europe, where they are divided among several countries, including Great Britain and France.

1941 – The revered German battleship Bismarck is cornered and sunk in the North Atlantic by ships and planes from the British Royal Navy, ending one of the most intensive naval manhunts in history. An estimated 2,100 crewmen are killed in the attack.

1962 – A mine fire that still burns to this day breaks out beneath the borough of Centralia, Pennsylvania.

1994 – Two decades after being expelled from the Soviet Union, Nobel laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn returns to Russia in an emotional homecoming.