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 On this date:
In 1850, Vice President Millard Fillmore assumed the presidency, taking the oath of office following the death of President Zachary Taylor.
In 1890, Wyoming became the 44th state.
In 1908, William Jennings Bryan was nominated for president by the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson personally delivered the Treaty of Versailles to the Senate, and urged its ratification.
In 1951, armistice talks aimed at ending the Korean War began at Kaesong.
In 1962, the Telstar communications satellite was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
In 1973, the Bahamas became fully independent after three centuries of British colonial rule.
In 1978, ABC-TV launched its reformatted evening newscast, "World News Tonight," with anchors Frank Reynolds, Peter Jennings and Max Robinson.
In 1985, bowing to pressure from irate customers, the Coca-Cola Co. said it would resume selling old-formula Coke, while continuing to sell New Coke.
In 1991, Boris N. Yeltsin took the oath of office as the first elected president of the Russian republic.
Ten years ago: The Diocese of Dallas agreed to pay $23.4 million to nine former altar boys who said they'd been molested by a priest.
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 Five years ago: During a visit to Botswana, President Bush pledged to the nation with the world's highest AIDS infection rate that it would have a strong partner in his administration in fighting the disease. Spain opened its first mosque in 500 years. Astronomers announced they had found the oldest and most distant planet yet, a huge, gaseous sphere 13 billion years old and 5,600 light years away. Lord Shawcross, Britain's chief prosecutor at the Nazi war crimes trials in Nuremberg, died in Cowbeech, England, at age 101.
One year ago: China executed the former head of its food and drug agency for approving untested medicine in exchange for cash. A judge in Los Angeles sentenced pizza deliveryman Chester Turner to death for murdering 10 women and a fetus during the 1980s and
'90s. The American League defeated the National League 5-4 in the All-Star baseball game. Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Doug Marlette, 57, died in an auto accident near Holly Springs, Miss.
Today's birthdays: Eunice Kennedy Shriver is 87. Former boxer Jake LaMotta is 87. Writer-producer Earl Hamner Jr. is 85. Former New York City Mayor David N. Dinkins is 81. Actor William Smithers is 81. Broadway composer Jerry Herman is 77. Director Ivan Passer is 75. Actor Lawrence Pressman is 69. Singer Mavis Staples is 69. Actor Mills Watson is 68. Actor Robert Pine is 67. Rock musician Jerry Miller (Moby Grape) is 65. Tennis player Virginia Wade is 63. Actor Ron Glass is 63. Actress Sue Lyon is 62. Folk singer Arlo Guthrie is 61. Rock musician Dave Smalley is 59. Country-folk singer-songwriter Cheryl Wheeler is 57. Rock singer Neil Tennant (Pet Shop Boys) is 54. Banjo player Bela Fleck is 50. Country musician Shaw Wilson (BR549) is 48. Country singer-songwriter Ken Mellons is 43. Rock musician Peter DiStefano (Porno for Pyros) is 43. Country singer Gary LeVox (Rascal Flats) is 38. Actress Sofia Vergara is 36. Actor Adrian Grenier is 32. Actor Thomas Ian Nicholas is 28. Singer-actress Jessica Simpson is 28.
Thought for today: "There are only two distinct classes of people on this earth: those who espouse enthusiasm and those who despise it."
-- Germaine de Stael, French author (1766-1817)
[Associated Press]
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
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