September 5th, 2008

Today in History

1986:
Pan Am Flight 73 with 358 people on board is hijacked at Karachi International Airport.

1970:
Vietnam War: Operation Jefferson Glenn begins: the United States 101st Airborne Division and the South Vietnamese 1st Infantry Division initiate a new operation in Thua Thien Province.

1960:
Muhammad Ali wins the gold medal in boxing at the Rome Olympic Games.

1943:
World War II: The 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment under U.S. General Douglas MacArthur lands and occupies Nazdab in Papua New Guinea.

1698:
In an effort to move his people away from Asiatic customs, Tsar Peter I of Russia imposes a tax on beards; All men except priests and peasants, are required to pay a tax of one hundred rubles a year and the commoners had to pay one kopek each.