Today In History

In 1804: Lt. Stephen Decatur led a successful raid into Tripoli Harbor to burn the U.S. Navy frigate Philadelphia, which had fallen into the hands of pirates.

In 1862: During the Civil War, some 14,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered at Fort Donelson, Tenn.

In 1868: The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks was organized in New York City.

In 1918: Lithuania proclaimed its independence.

In 1923: The burial chamber of King Tutankhamen’s recently unearthed tomb was unsealed in Egypt.

In 1937: Dr. Wallace H. Carothers, a research chemist for Du Pont who invented nylon, received a patent for the synthetic fiber.

In 1945: American troops landed on the island of Corregidor in the Philippines during World War II.

In 1948: NBC began airing its first nightly newscast, “The Camel Newsreel Theatre,” which consisted of Fox Movietone newsreels.

In 1959: Fidel Castro became premier of Cuba after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.

In 1968: The nation’s first 911 emergency telephone system was inaugurated, in Haleyville, Ala.

In 1987: John Demjanjuk went on trial in Jerusalem, accused of being “Ivan the Terrible,” a guard at the Treblinka Nazi concentration camp.