Today's Highlight in History:


On this date:



In 1929, a U.S. Coast Guard vessel sank a Canadian-registered schooner, the I'm Alone, which was suspected of carrying bootleg liquor, in the Gulf of Mexico.


In 1941, the Grand Coulee hydroelectric dam in Washington state officially went into operation.

In 1958, movie producer Mike Todd, the husband of actress Elizabeth Taylor, and three other people, were killed in the crash of Todd's private plane near Grants, New Mexico.

In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson named Gen. William C. Westmoreland to be the U.S. Army's new Chief of Staff.


In 1987, a garbage barge, carrying 3,200 tons of refuse, left Islip, New York, on a six-month journey in search of a place to unload. (The barge was turned away by several states and three other countries until space was found back in Islip.)

In 1991, high school instructor Pamela Smart, accused of recruiting her teenage lover and his friends to kill her husband, Gregory, was convicted in Exeter, New Hampshire, of murder-conspiracy and being an accomplice to murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

In 1992, 27 people were killed when a USAir Fokker F-28 jetliner bound for Cleveland crashed on takeoff from New York's LaGuardia Airport; 24 people survived.

In 1997, Tara Lipinski, at age 14 years and 10 months, became the youngest ladies' world figure skating champion in Lausanne, Switzerland.