On this date:
In 1846, US annexation of California was proclaimed at Monterey after the surrender of a Mexican garrison.
In 1896, the Democratic national convention opened in Chicago.
In 1898, the United States annexed Hawaii.
In 1930, construction began on Boulder Dam (later Hoover Dam).
In 1949, the police drama "Dragnet," starring Jack Webb and Barton Yarborough, premiered on NBC radio.
In 1954, Elvis Presley made his radio debut as Memphis, Tennessee, station WHBQ played his first recording for Sun Records, "That's All Right (Mama)."
In 1958, President Eisenhower signed the Alaska statehood bill.
In 1969, Canada's House of Commons gave final approval to a measure making the French language equal to English throughout the national government.
In 1981, President Reagan announced he was nominating Arizona Judge Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female justice on the U-S Supreme Court.
In 1983, eleven-year-old Samantha Smith of Manchester, Maine, left for a visit to the Soviet Union at the personal invitation of Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov.
Ten years ago: President Bush welcomed fellow leaders of the Group of Seven countries, who were gathering in Houston for their 16th annual economic summit. Martina Navratilova captured a record-breaking ninth women's title at Wimbledon, outplaying Zina Garrison, 6-4, 6-1.
Five years ago: The space shuttle "Atlantis" landed at Cape Canaveral, Florida, bringing back American astronaut Norman Thagard, who'd spent three and a-half months aboard the Russian space station "Mir."
One year ago: In the first class-action lawsuit by smokers to go to trial, a jury in Miami held cigarette makers liable for making a defective product that causes emphysema, lung cancer and other illnesses. President Clinton became the first president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to visit an Indian reservation as he toured the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
"There is no escape -- man drags man down, or man lifts man up."
-- Attributed to Booker T. Washington, American educator and author (1856-1915).