1922 – U.S. Secretary of Interior leased Teapot Dome naval oil reserves in Wyoming.
1927 – The first long-distance TV transmission was sent from Washington, DC, to New York City. The audience saw an image of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover.
1930 – The first steel columns were set for the Empire State Building.
1943 – British and American armies linked up between Wadi Akarit and El Guettar in North Africa to form a solid line against the German army.
1945 – The Japanese battleship Yamato, the world’s largest battleship, was sunk during the battle for Okinawa. The fleet was headed for a suicide mission.
1953 – The Big Four met for the first time in 2 years to seek an end to their air conflicts.
1963 – Yugoslavia proclaimed itself a Socialist republic.
1963 – Josip Broz Tito was proclaimed to be the leader of Yugoslavia for life.
1966 – The U.S. recovered a hydrogen bomb it had lost off the coast of Spain.
1967 – Israel reported that they had shot down six Syrian MIGs.
1971 – U.S. President Nixon pledged to withdraw 100,000 more men from Vietnam by December.
1980 – The U.S. broke diplomatic relations with Iran and imposed economic sanctions in response to the taking of hostages on November 4, 1979.
1983 – Specialist Story Musgrave and Don Peterson made the first Space Shuttle spacewalk.
1985 – The Soviet Union announced a unilateral freeze on medium-range nuclear missiles.
1988 – Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to final terms of a Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. Soviet troops began leaving on May 16, 1988.
1989 – A Soviet submarine carrying nuclear weapons sank in the Norwegian Sea.
2006 – The Boeing X-37 conducted its first flight as a test drop at Edwards Air Force Base, CA.
