On This Day: Blast aboard USS Bennington kills 100

On this date in history:

In 1864, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, anxious to create new free territories during the Civil War, signed an act establishing the Montana Territory. Montana became a state 25 years later.

In 1868, at the end of a historic two-month trial, the U.S. Senate acquitted President Andrew Johnson of impeachment charges levied against him by the House of Representatives. Johnson won acquittal by one vote on each count.

In 1896, Nicholas II became the Russian czar.

In 1897, Dracula was published by Irish writer Bram Stoker.

File Photo by Joe Marino-Bill Cantrell/UPI

In 1927, the final Ford Model T was built. More than 15 million of the vehicles were produced.

In 1940, the evacuation of Dunkirk began. Sailing vessels of every kind were pressed into service to ferry British, French and Belgian soldiers trapped by advancing German forces in northern France across the English Channel.

In 1954, more than 100 crewmembers of the aircraft carrier USS Bennington died in an explosion off Rhode Island.

In 1972, at a Moscow summit, U.S. President Richard Nixon and Soviet Communist Party leader Leonid Brezhnev signed a pact limiting nuclear weapons.

In 1985, a cyclone struck the Bay of Bengal, killing 1,400 people in Bangladesh.

In 1991, a Lauda Air Boeing 767-300 exploded over Thailand after takeoff, killing all 223 people aboard.

In 1994, Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of Elvis Presley, were married in the Dominican Republic. They divorced two years later.

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In 2003, a plane crash in Turkey killed all 74 people aboard, including 62 Spanish soldiers returning from peacekeeping duties in Afghanistan.

In 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor, a federal appeals judge, to the U.S. Supreme Court to succeed retiring Justice David Souter. She became the first person of Hispanic ancestry on the high court.

In 2012, Dmitry Medvedev, prime minister and ex-president, was elected leader of the ruling United Russia Party.

In 2014, Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi was sworn in as prime minister of India.

File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI