In 1776, the Virginia state constitution was adopted, and Patrick Henry made governor.
In 1767, the British Parliament approved the Townshend Revenue Acts, which imposed import duties on glass, lead, paint, paper and tea shipped to America. Colonists bitterly protested the Acts, which were repealed in 1770.
In 1941, Polish statesman, pianist and composer Ignace Jan Paderewski died in New York at age 80.
In 1946, British authorities arrested more than 2700 Jews in Palestine in an attempt to stamp out alleged terrorism.
In 1949, the government of South Africa enacted a ban against racially-mixed marriages.
In 1954, the Atomic Energy Commission voted against re-instating Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer's access to classified information.
In 1966, the United States bombed fuel storage facilities near the North Vietnamese cities of Hanoi and Haiphong.
In 1967, Jerusalem was re-unified as Israel removed barricades separating the Old City from the Israeli sector.
In 1970, the United States ended a two-month military offensive into Cambodia.
In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the death penalty, as it was being meted out, could constitute "cruel and unusual punishment." (The ruling prompted states to revise their capital punishment laws.)
In 1986, Senator John P. East, a Republican from North Carolina, was found dead in the garage of his home in Greenville, an apparent suicide. He was 55.
In 1991, President Bush, speaking to reporters in Kennebunkport, Maine, refused to rule out the possibility of renewed military action against Iraq, calling its interference with U.N. inspectors "very disturbing."
In 1992, a divided Supreme Court ruled that women have a constitutional right to abortion, but the justices also weakened the right as defined by the Roe versus Wade decision.
In 1995, the shuttle "Atlantis" and the space station "Mir" docked, forming the largest man-made satellite ever to orbit the Earth. A department store in Seoul, South Korea collapsed, killing 501 people and injuring more than 900. Actress Lana Turner died in Century City, California, at age 74.
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