Today In History

1947: The balsa wood raft Kon-Tiki, which had carried a six-man crew 4,300 miles across the Pacific Ocean, crashed into a reef in a Polynesian archipelago.

1782: George Washington created the Order of the Purple Heart, a decoration to recognize merit in enlisted men and noncommissioned officers.

1912: The Progressive Party nominated Theodore Roosevelt for president.

1934: the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling striking down the government’s attempt to ban the controversial James Joyce novel “Ulysses.”

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

1964: Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, giving President Johnson broad powers in dealing with reported North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. forces.