November 20th, 2008

Today in History

2001:
In Washington, DC, US President George W. Bush dedicates the United States Department of Justice headquarters building as the Robert F. Kennedy Justice Building, honoring the late Robert F. Kennedy on what would have been his 76th birthday.

1947:
The Princess Elizabeth marries Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey in London.

1943:
United States Marines land on Tarawa and Makin atolls in the Gilbert Islands and take heavy fire from Japanese shore guns.

1940:
World War II: Hungary, Romania and Slovakia join the Axis Powers.

1820:
An 80-ton sperm whale attacks the Essex (a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts) 2,000 miles from the western coast of South America (Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick was in part inspired by this story).