Today In History

In 1789: Mutineers seized the British ship the Bounty and set Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors adrift in a launch in the South Pacific.

In 1947: A six-man expedition sailed from Peru aboard a balsa wood raft named the Kon Tiki on a 101-day journey to Polynesia.

In 1952: War with Japan officially ended as a treaty that had been signed by the United States and 47 other countries took effect.

In 1958: Vice President Nixon and his wife, Pat, began a goodwill tour of Latin America that was marred by hostile mobs in Lima, Peru, and Caracas, Venezuela.

In 1967: Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali refused to be inducted into the Army, the same day General William C. Westmoreland told Congress the United States would “prevail in Vietnam.”