This Day in History
1763: The Skating Club of Edinburgh, in Scotland, holds the first speed skating competition, a 15-mile race held on the Fens in England.1787: The first Episcopal bishops in the United States are consecrated by the Church of England.
1861: At a meeting in Montgomery, Alabama , states seceding from the Union form a provisional government, the Confederate States of America.
1899: Unable to get recognition of independence from the United States, Filipino insurgents start a guerrilla war.
1945: The Yalta Conference in the Crimea begins with Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin.
1948: Ceylon (now Sri Lanka ), a former British colony, becomes independent.
1988: The United States indicts Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega on drug trafficking charges.
1997: A civil jury finds O. J. Simpson liable in the 1994 murders of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.
2002: Beleaguered Kenneth Lay resigns as Enron CEO after months of damaging speculation about the energy company's swift and scandalous collapse.
2004: Pakistan ’s leading nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, admits having provided Iran, North Korea, and Libya with nuclear designs and technology.
Today's Birthdays
1902: Charles Lindbergh, aviator and first person to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic (Detroit, MI; died 1974)1913: Rosa Parks, civil rights activist (Tuskegee, AL)
1921: Betty Friedan, feminist writer and founder of NOW (Peoria, IL)
1923: Conrad Bain, actor (Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada)
1936: Gary Conway, actor (Boston, MA)
1945: David Brenner, comedian (Philadelphia, PA)
1947: Dan Quayle, former vice president of the United States and Indiana senator (Indianapolis, IN)
1948: Alice Cooper, singer/songwriter (Detroit, MI)
1952: Lisa Eichhorn, actress (Reading, PA)
1959: Lawrence Taylor, football player (Williamsburg, VA)
1962: Clint Black, country singer/songwriter (Katy, TX)
1971: Michael Goorjian, actor (San Francisco, CA)
1975: Natalie Imbruglia, singer (Sydney, Australia)
