October 15th, 2008

Today in History

1990:
Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to lessen Cold War tensions and open up his nation.

1970:
Thirty-five construction workers are killed when a section of the new West Gate Bridge in Melbourne collapses.

1966:
US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs a bill creating the United States Department of Transportation.

1894:
Dreyfus affair begins.

1764:
Edward Gibbon observes a group of friars singing in the ruined Temple of Jupiter in Rome, which inspires him to begin work on The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire