U.S. and World History

1864 – Ulysses S. Grant became commander of the Union armies during the Civil War.

1876 – The first discernible speech was transmitted over a telephone system when inventor Alexander Graham Bell summoned his assistant in another room by saying, “Mr. Watson, come here; I want you.”

1893 – New Mexico State University – then known as New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts – canceled its first graduation ceremony. Sam Steel, the only scheduled graduate, was shot and killed the night before.

1933 – An earthquake in Long Beach, California killed 115 people and caused an estimated $40 million in damage.

1951 – J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, turned down a $65,000 a year offer to become the third commissioner of Major League Baseball.

1965 – Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple opened at the Plymouth Theatre on Broadway.  Art Carney and Walter Matthau played the roles of Felix Unger and Oscar Madison.

1969 – James Earl Ray pleaded guilty in Memphis, Tenn., to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. He was sentenced to 99 years in prison.

1971 – The United States Senate voted 94–0 in favor of proposing a Constitutional amendment to guarantee that the voting age could not be higher than 18. Two weeks later, the U.S. House voted 401–19 in favor of the proposed amendment.
The proposed Twenty-sixth Amendment was sent to the state legislatures for their consideration. Ratification was completed on July 1, 1971, after the amendment had been ratified by thirty-eight states.

1973 – Theophilus “Bull” Connor, who, as the Commissioner of Public Safety for the city of Birmingham, Alabama during the Civil Rights Movement, enforced racial segregation and denied civil rights to black citizens – making him an international symbol of racism – died following a stroke at the age of 75.

1978 – The Incredible Hulk, starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno, premiered on CBS, beginning a five year run.

1980 – Scarsdale Diet author Dr. Herman Tarnower was shot to death in Purchase, N.Y. His lover, Jean Harris, was convicted of murder and served nearly 12 years in prison.

1985 – Konstantin Chernenko, Soviet leader for just 13 months, died at the age of 73. The cause of death was chronic emphysema, an enlarged and damaged heart, congestive heart failure and cirrhosis of the liver. Politburo member Mikhail S. Gorbachev was chosen to succeed him.

1993 – Dr. David Gunn was shot to death outside a Pensacola, Fla., abortion clinic.

1998 – Actor Lloyd Bridges (High Noon, Roots, How The West Was Won, Airplane!, Hot Shots! and best remembered for his role as Mike Nelson, the main character in the television series Sea Hunt) died of natural causes at the age of 85.

2007 – Comedian Richard Jeni committed suicide, dying from a self-inflicted handgun wound to the head. According to the coroner’s report released in June 2007, Jeni had a history of schizophrenia and had been taking antidepressants and a sleeping aid. The report further indicated that his girlfriend heard him talking to himself about a week earlier, saying “just squeeze the trigger.”

2008 – New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer apologized after allegations surfaced that he had paid thousands of dollars for a high-end call girl, a scandal which eventually led to his resignation.

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