In 1912, Juliette Gordon Low organized the first Girl Scouts of America troop in Savannah, Ga.
In 1930, Mahatma Gandhi began a campaign of civil disobedience against British rule in India.
In 1933, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt made the first of his Sunday evening “fireside chats” — informal radio addresses from the White House to
the American people.
In 1938, Nazi Germany invaded and occupied Austria.
In 1947, in a speech to Congress, U.S. President Harry Truman outlined what became known as the Truman Doctrine, calling for U.S. aid to countries threatened
by communist revolution.
In 1963, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to grant former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill honorary U.S. citizenship.
In 1990, Exxon pleaded guilty to criminal charges and agreed to pay a $100 million fine in a $1.1 billion settlement of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
Also in 1990, South African President F.W. de Klerk introduced legislation to revise land tenure laws and end racial discrimination in land ownership.
In 1993, more than 250 people were killed when a wave of bombings rocked Mumbai.
In 1994, the Church of England ordained its first women priests.
In 1999, former Soviet allies the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland joined NATO.
In 2000, Pope John Paul II apologized for the errors of the Roman Catholic Church during the past 2,000 years.
In 2001, six people, including five Americans, were killed when an errant bomb from a U.S. Navy fighter jet exploded at an observation post in Kuwait.
In 2002, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, speaking after Israeli raids killed 31 Palestinians, declared that Israel must end its “illegal occupation”
of Palestinian land. That night, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.
And in 2002, the Boston archdiocese said it would have to sell church property, take out loans and seek donations from wealthy supporters to cover the
$100 million in settlements of lawsuits against priests in sexual abuse cases.
In 2003, Elizabeth Smart, 15, who had been kidnapped from her Salt Lake City home on June 2002, was found alive in the custody of a panhandler and his
wife in nearby Sandy, Utah.
Also in 2003, the premier of Serbia, Zoran Djindjic, died after being shot by assassins.
In 2004, millions of Spaniards protested the Madrid train bombings of the day before that killed 191 and wounded more than 1,000 others.
In 2005, Iran rejected Washington’s willingness to offer economic incentives if the Islamic state gives up its nuclear program.
Also in 2005, a gunman killed seven people and himself at an evangelical church meeting near Milwaukee.
In 2006, Iraq violence claimed at least 70 lives, including nearly 50 who died in six car bombings in Baghdad’s major Shiite stronghold. Hundreds were
wounded.
In 2008, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned after being caught up in a high-priced prostitution scandal. He was succeeded by Lt. Gov. David Paterson,
New York’s first African-American (and legally blind) governor.
In 2009, a 17-year-old youth, who felt “no one recognized my potential,” killed 17 people at his former school in Winnenden, Germany, including nine students.
The alleged shooter died in a police gun battle.
