O n June 16, 1858, in a speech in Springfield, Senate candidate Abraham Lincoln said the slavery issue had to be resolved, declaring, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
In 1890 Stan Laurel, the skinny half of the Laurel and Hardy comedy team, was born Arthur Stanley Jefferson in Lancashire, England.
In 1897 the U.S. government signed a treaty of annexation with Hawaii.
In 1903 Ford Motor Co. was incorporated.
In 1932 President Herbert Hoover and Vice President Charles Curtis were renominated at the Republican national convention in Chicago.
In 1933 the National Industrial Recovery Act became law. (It was later struck down by the Supreme Court.)
In 1937 writer Erich Segal, perhaps best-known for his novel “Love Story,” was born in Brooklyn, N.Y.
In 1938 writer Joyce Carol Oates was born in Lockport, N.Y.
In 1943 comedian Charlie Chaplin married his fourth wife, 18-year-old Oona O’Neill, daughter of playwright Eugene O’Neill, in Carpenteria, Calif.
In 1955 Pope Pius XXII excommunicated Argentine President Juan Domingo Peron, a ban that was lifted eight years later. Also i n 1955 actress Laurie Metcalf, an ensemble member of Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company, was born in Carbondale, Ill.
In 1963 Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space after being launched into orbit aboard Vostok 6.
In 1977 Soviet Communist Party General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev was named president, becoming the first person to hold both posts simultaneously. Also in 1977 Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood was born in Irving, Texas.
In 1978 President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos exchanged the instruments of ratification for the Panama Canal treaties.
In 1981 William Wrigley announces the sale of the Cubs to Tribune Co. for $20.5 million.
In 1987 a New York jury acquitted Bernhard Goetz of attempted murder in the subway shooting of four young blacks who he said were going to rob him. (He was convicted of illegal weapons possession.)
In 1992 former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger was indicted on felony charges in the Iran-contra affair. (Later, he was pardoned by President George Bush.)
In 1994 former President Jimmy Carter, on a private visit to North Korea, reported that the communist nation’s leaders were eager to resume talks with the U.S. on resolving disputes about Pyongyang’s nuclear program and improving relations.
In 1995 Bosnian government forces aided by Bosnian Croats unleashed a major offensive in hopes of breaking the Serb stranglehold on Sarajevo. Also in 1995 Salt Lake City was awarded the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.
In 1996 Russian voters went to the polls in their first independent presidential election; the result was a runoff between President Boris Yeltsin (the eventual winner) and Communist challenger Gennady Zyuganov. Also in 1996 the Chicago Bulls won the NBA championship, beating the Seattle SuperSonics in Game 6, 87-75.
In 1999 Kathleen Ann Soliah, a fugitive member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, was captured in St. Paul, where she had made a new life under the name Sara Jane Olson.
In 2000 federal regulators approved the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE Corp., creating the nation’s largest local phone company.
In 2004, rebuffing Bush administration claims, the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks said no evidence existed that Al Qaeda had strong ties to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
In 2005 European Union leaders put on hold plans to unite their 25 nations under a single constitution.
