On this date:
In 1788, New York became the eleventh state to ratify the US Constitution.
In 1908, US Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte issued an order creating an investigative agency that was a forerunner of the FBI.
In 1945, Winston Churchill resigned as Britain's prime minister after his Conservatives were soundly defeated by the Labor Party. (Clement Attlee became the new prime minister.)
In 1947, President Truman signed the National Security Act, creating the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
In 1948, President Truman signed a pair of executive orders prohibiting discrimination in the US armed forces and federal employment.
In 1952, Argentina's first lady, Eva Peron, died in Buenos Aires at age 33.
In 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal.
In 1964, Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa and six others were convicted of fraud and conspiracy in the handling of a union pension fund.
In 1971, "Apollo 15" was launched from Cape Kennedy.
In 1986, kidnappers in Lebanon released the Reverend Lawrence Martin Jenco, an American hostage held for nearly 19 months.
Ten years ago: President Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act. The US House of Representatives reprimanded Congressman Barney Frank (Democrat, Massachusetts) for ethics violations. The US Centers for Disease Control reported that a young woman, later identified as Kimberly Bergalis, had been infected with the AIDS virus, apparently by her dentist.
Five years ago: The Senate voted 69-to-29 to unilaterally lift the UN embargo on arms shipments to Bosnia. Former Michigan Governor George W. Romney died at age 88.
One year ago: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and her Russian counterpart, Igor Ivanov, announced a second Washington-Moscow "hot line" would be installed to help avoid misunderstandings like those that had developed over Kosovo. Cary Stayner, a motel handyman, described in detail for an off-camera jailhouse interview with San Francisco TV station KBWB how he'd killed a naturalist and three Yosemite sightseers.
"No man can resolve himself into Heaven."
-- Dwight L. Moody, American evangelist (1837-1899).