September 6th, 2008

Today in History

1997:
The funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, at Westminster Abbey draws large crowds.

1976:
Cold War: Soviet air force pilot Lt. Viktor Belenko lands a MiG-25 jet fighter at Hakodate on the island of Hokkaido in Japan and requests political asylum in the United States.

1966:
In Cape Town, South Africa, the architect of Apartheid, Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, is stabbed to death during a parliamentary meeting.

1901:
Anarchist Leon Czolgosz shoots and fatally wounds US President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.

1870:
Louisa Ann Swain of Laramie, Wyoming, votes in the morning, becoming the first woman in the United States to cast a vote legally after 1807.