Former Speaker of the House Thomas P. Tip O’Neill dies in Boston at age 81. O’Neill entered politics in 1936 when he was elected to the Massachusetts House where he served until 1952. In 1953 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat and was voted Speaker of the House in […]
Reggie Lewis Dies
On this day in 1993, Boston Celtics star Reggie Lewis collapses after suffering cardiac arrest while shooting baskets at Brandeis University in Boston, Massachusetts. Two hours later, Lewis was pronounced dead at Waltham-Weston Hospital. Reggie Lewis grew up shooting baskets every day in his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. He attended Dunbar High School, where he […]
Kaskaskia Is Inundated By Flood Of ’93
On this day in 1993, the levee holding back the flooding Mississippi River at Kaskaskia, Illinois, ruptures, forcing the town’s people to flee on barges. The Mississippi flood of 1993 caused $18 billion in damages and killed 52 people. From June through August 1993, the midwestern United States received far more rainfall than normal, particularly […]
Romanov Remains Identified
British forensic scientists announce that they have positively identified the remains of Russia’s last czar, Nicholas II; his wife, Czarina Alexandra; and three of their daughters. The scientists used mitochondria DNA fingerprinting to identify the bones, which had been excavated from a mass grave near Yekaterinburg in 1991. On the night of July 16, 1918, […]
A Serial Rapist Strikes In Allentown
A knife-wielding serial rapist and murderer attacks Denise Sam-Cali in her Allentown, Pennsylvania, home. Although he succeeded in raping Sam-Cali on the front lawn outside her house, the courageous woman survived and later proved instrumental in bringing him to justice. Sam-Cali’s vicious attack was the third of its kind that month in Allentown. On June […]
Clinton Punishes Iraq For Plot To Kill Bush
In retaliation for an Iraqi plot to assassinate former U.S. President George Bush during his April visit to Kuwait, President Bill Clinton orders U.S. warships to fire Tomahawk cruise missiles at Iraqi intelligence headquarters in downtown Baghdad.
Kim Campbell Takes Office
In Ottawa, Kim Campbell is sworn in as Canada’s 19th prime minister, becoming the first woman to hold the country’s highest office. Born in Port Alberni, British Columbia, in 1947, Campbell studied law and political science before entering Canadian politics during the 1980s. In 1986, she was elected to the British Columbia legislature as a […]
Mail Bomb Injures Yale Professor
On June 24, 1993, Yale University computer science professor David Gelernter is seriously injured while opening his mail when a padded envelope explodes in his hands. The attack just came two days after a University of California geneticist was injured by a similar bomb and was the latest in a string of bombings since 1978 […]