Today In History

In 1807: Former Vice President Aaron Burr was found innocent of treason.

In 1897: The first section of Boston’s new subway system was opened.

In 1905: Alberta and Saskatchewan became the eighth and ninth provinces of Canada.

In 1923: The Japanese cities of Tokyo and Yokohama were devastated by an earthquake that claimed some 150,000 lives.

In 1932: New York City Mayor James J. “Gentleman Jimmy” Walker resigned following charges of graft and corruption in his administration.

In 1942: a federal judge in Sacramento, Calif., upheld the wartime detention of Japanese-Americans as well as Japanese nationals.

In 1969: a coup in Libya brought Moammar Gadhafi to power.

In 1972: American Bobby Fischer won the international chess crown in Reykjavik, Iceland, defeating Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union.

In 1983: 269 people were killed when a Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 was shot down by a Soviet jet fighter after the airliner entered Soviet airspace.

In 1989: Baseball Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti died of a heart attack at his summer home in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., at age 51.