Today in History

LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Device) “sonic cannon,” a non-lethal device that utilizes intense sound, is used in the United States for the first time, to disperse protestors at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, Penn.

Hurricane Rita, the 4th-most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded, comes ashore in Texas causing extensive damage there and in Louisiana, which had devastated by Hurricane Katrina less than a month earlier.

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty signed by representatives of 71 nations at the UN; at present, five key nations have signed but not ratified it and three others have not signed.

Sihanouk is reinstalled as king of Cambodia.

CompuServe (CIS) offers one of the first online services to consumers; it will dominate among Internet service providers for consumers through the mid-1990s.

The Soviet Luna 16 lands, completing the first unmanned round trip to the moon.

Paul Ray Smith, US Army Sergeant, received Medal of Honor posthumously during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The University of Mississippi agrees to admit James Meredith as the first black university student, sparking more rioting.

The Enterprise, the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier, is launched.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends federal troops into Little Rock, Arkansas, to protect nine black students entering its newly integrated high school.

The first transatlantic telephone cable system begins operation.

The World Women’s Party meets for the first time since World War II.

“”Mean Joe” Greene, pro football player (Pittsburgh Steelers) considered one of the greatest defensive linemen ever to play in the NFL; member of Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Louis “Lou” Dobbs, TV personality (Lou Dobbs Tonight, CNN), radio host (Fox Business Network).

Linda McCartney, singer, photographer, activist; member of band Wings; former wife of Beatles member Paul McCartney.

Jim Henson, puppeteer who created the “Muppets” in 1954 and television’s Sesame Street.

Noel Coward’s comedy Private Lives opens in London starring Gertrude Lawrence and Coward himself.

The first flight using only instruments is completed by U.S. Army pilot James Doolittle.

Bulgaria mobilizes troops on the Serbian border.

In the Alsace-Lorraine area between France and Germany, the German Army captures St. Mihiel.

Konstantin Chernenko, president of the Soviet Union 1984-1985.

Sixty-two die and 120 are injured in head-on train collision in Tennessee.

Francis Scott Key (F. Scott) Fitzgerald, novelist best known for The Great Gatsby.

E. Franklin Frazier, first African-American president of the American Sociological Society.

George Claude, French engineer, inventor of the neon light.

President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus against anyone suspected of being a Southern sympathizer.

Branwell Bronte, the brother of the Bronte sisters and the model for Hindley Earnshaw in Emily’s novel Wuthering Heights, dies of tuberculosis. Emily and Anne die the same year.

Congress passes the Judiciary Act of 1789, establishing a strong federal court system with the powers it needs to ensure the supremacy of the Constitution and federal law. The new Supreme Court will have a chief justice and five associate justices.

After having been dissolved, the French Parliament of Paris reassembles in triumph.

John Marshall, fourth chief justice of the Supreme Court and U.S. secretary of state.

Horace Walpole, author, creator of the Gothic novel genre.

Gerolamo Cardano, mathematician, author of Games of Chance, the first systematic computation of probabilities.