• 1955: James Dean is Killed — James Dean was killed in an automobile accident today along with his mechanic Rolf Wutherich, when Dean's Porsche 550 Spyder crashed head-on into another car. The tormented young actor was the embodiment of an entire generation's restless rebellion, made famous by his role in Rebel Without a Cause and called "the damaged but beautiful soul of our time" by Andy Warhol.
• 2003: Robert Kardashian Dies — Robert Kardashian, 59, lawyer turned businessman who in 1995 returned to the courtroom to help win the acquittal of onetime football star O. J. Simpson on murder charges, in the 1994 deaths of Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman; a close friend of Simpson's since the 1970s, it was from his house in Encino, California that Simpson fled a few days after the murders, when police came to arrest him, leading to a dramatic car chase along the freeways of Southern California; Kardashian later expressed public doubts about Simpson's innocence; died at his Encino home, of esophageal cancer.
• 1789: US Army is Established — Congress established a regular army of 1000 men. The organization consists of one regiment of eight infantry companies and one battalion of four artillery companies. These forces were already at hand, guarding the frontier under the last months of the old confederation Congress.
• 1989: Ferdinand Marcos Dies — Marcos was the former Philippines president, whose corrupt regime spanned over twenty years, dies in exile in Hawaii. He was forced from power three years before by a popular front led by Corazon Aquino. Aquino’s husband was assassinated near the end of the Marcos reign and it was suspected that Marcos ordered the assassination.
• 2005: House Majority Leader DeLay Indicted on Texas Campaign Finance Charge
• 1789: First Amendments to the Constitution Proposed
• 1981: First Woman Appointed to the Supreme Court — Sandra Day O'Connor of Arizona becomes the first female Supreme Court justice. She joins the court just four days after being confirmed unanimously by the Senate and was sworn in by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger. President Ronald Reagan nominated O’Connor for the position.
• 1806: Lewis And Clark End Expedition — The Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery ended their two-year epic journey across America’s western region, all the way to the Pacific Ocean. The expedition left St. Louis two years before and returned to the same starting point. The expedition proved the possibility of over land travel to the West Coast.
• 1953: Richard Nixon Delivers his Checkers Speech — While running for Vice-President it had emerged that he had he had personally pocketed $18,000 in campaign contributions. Using a television appearance to clear his name, Nixon said that only personal gift he ever took was a dog named “Checkers”, which he proclaimed that his family would keep.
• 1862: Emancipation Proclamation Announced — President Lincoln announces, “That on the first day of January in the year of our Lord, one-thousand eight-hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves, within any state, the people wherof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever, free.” The President waited for a military victory, which occurred at Antietam, before made the proclamation public.
• 1893: First Automobile Introduced in US
• 1975: Second Assassination Attempt on President Ford — As the President was exiting from a speaking engagement in San Francisco, a second assassination attempt made against him in less than three weeks. Law enforcement officials later admitted that the shooter, Sara Jane Moore, was a police and FBI informer. Seventeen days earlier, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a follower of incarcerated cult leader Charles Manson, had a pistol wrested from her by Secret Service agents in Sacramento, California.
• 1960: Castro Arrives In New York — Fidel Castro arrives in New York City as the head of the Cuban delegation to the United Nations. Castro's visit stirred indignation and admiration from various sectors of American society, and was climaxed by his speech to the United Nations on September 26.
• 1975: Patty Hearst Captured — The red-haired girl answering to name of “Tania” was arrested in San Francisco. Hearst, who at first was allegedly kidnapped by the members of the Symbionese Liberation Army and later joined them, spent a year and a half with the group. During that time she participated in a several bank robberies and when captured, gave a clenched fist salute as she entered the court to be arraigned.
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