| On this date in: |
| 1781 | The Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation. |
| 1790 | Congress authorized the first U.S. census. |
| 1845 | President John Tyler signed a congressional resolution to annex the Republic of Texas. |
| 1867 | Nebraska became the 37th state. |
| 1872 | Congress authorized creation of Yellowstone National Park. |
| 1922 | Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was born in Jerusalem. |
| 1940 | The novel "Native Son" by Richard Wright was published. |
| 1954 | Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire from the gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives, wounding five congressmen. |
| 1961 | President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps. |
| 1968 | Country musicians Johnny Cash and June Carter were married. |
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| AP Photo/Ron Frehm |
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| 1974 | Former Nixon White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman and former Attorney General John Mitchell were indicted on obstruction of justice charges related to the Watergate break-in. |
| 1981 | Irish Republican Army member Bobby Sands began a hunger strike at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland. (He died 65 days later.) |
| 1990 | The Seabrook, N.H., nuclear power plant won federal permission to go on line after two decades of protests and legal struggles. |
| 2003 | Suspected Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was captured by CIA and Pakistani agents near Islamabad. |
| 2005 | Dennis Rader, the churchgoing family man accused of leading a double life as the BTK serial killer, was charged in Wichita, Kan., with 10 counts of first-degree murder. (Rader later pleaded guilty and received multiple life sentences.) |
| 2005 | A closely divided Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty for juvenile criminals. |
