Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1789

The first inaugural ball was held in New York in honor of President and Mrs. George Washington.

1847

The American Medical Association was founded in Philadelphia.

1915

Nearly 1,200 people died when a German torpedo sank the British liner Lusitania off the Irish coast. Read the original AP story The Lusitania is at top in the photo below; at bottom is the German submarine U-139 that sank it.

1939

Germany and Italy announced a military and political alliance known as the Rome-Berlin Axis.

1945

Germany signed an unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Rheims, France, to take effect the following day, ending the European conflict of World War II.

1954

The Battle of Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam ended after 55 days with Vietnamese insurgents overrunning French forces.

1960

Leonid Brezhnev replaced Marshal Kliment Voroshilov as president of the Supreme Soviet.

1975

President Ford formally declared an end to the ''Vietnam era.'' In Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, the Viet Cong staged a rally to celebrate their takeover.

1984

A $180 million out-of-court settlement was announced in the Agent Orange class-action suit brought by Vietnam veterans who charged they had suffered injury from exposure to the defoliant.

1992

A 203-year-old proposed constitutional amendment barring Congress from giving itself a midterm pay raise was ratified when Michigan became the 38th state to approve it.

1996

The first international war crimes proceeding since Nuremberg opened at The Hague in the Netherlands. Serbian police officer Dusan Tadic was convicted on murder-torture charges and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

1997

The Army accused its top enlisted man, Army Sgt. Maj. Gene McKinney, of sexual misconduct. At his court-martial, McKinney was acquitted of sexual misconduct, but found guilty of obstruction of justice.

1998

Londoners voted overwhelmingly to elect their own mayor for the first time in history.

1998

The parent company of Mercedes-Benz agreed to buy Chrysler Corp. for more than $37 billion.

1999

NATO jets struck the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, killing three people and injuring 20; President Clinton called the attack a ''tragic mistake.''

1999

A jury in Pontiac, Mich., ordered ''The Jenny Jones Show'' to pay $25 million to the family of Scott Amedure, a gay man who was shot to death after revealing a crush on Jonathan Schmitz, a fellow guest on the talk show.

2000

President Vladimir Putin took the oath of office in Russia's first democratic transfer of power.

1812

Poet Robert Browning was born in London.

1833

Composer Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg, Germany.

1840

Composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in the Ural region of Russia.

1825

Italian composer Antonio Salieri died in Vienna, Austria