On This Day: U.S. establishes 1st diplomatic ties to Vatican in 116 years

Jan. 10 (UPI) -- On this date in history:

In 1789, the first nationwide U.S. presidential election was conducted. Electors chosen by the voters unanimously picked George Washington as president and John Adams as vice president.

In 1861, Florida seceded from the United States.

In 1878, a constitutional amendment that would give women the right to vote was introduced into the U.S. Senate. It wasn't until 42 years later that the amendment was enacted.

More than 25,000 women take to New York City's Fifth Avenue on October 23, 1915, advocating for women’s voting rights. File Photo by Library of Congress/UPI

In 1901, oil was discovered at the Spindletop claim near Beaumont, Texas, launching the Southwest oil boom.

In 1920, the League of Nations came into being as the Treaty of Versailles went into effect.

In 1946, the first meeting of the U.N. General Assembly convened in London.

In 1957, Six dynamite blasts heavily damaged four black churches in Montgomery, Ala., and the homes of two ministers. No one was injured.

In 1984, the United States established full diplomatic relations with the Vatican for the first time in 116 years.

In 2003, North Korea announced it was withdrawing from the 1979 nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

In 2008, Edmund Hillary, who gained international fame as a member of the first climbing party to scale Mount Everest, died in Auckland, New Zealand, at age 88.

Edmund Hillary (L) and Tenzing Norgay are pictured May 29, 1953, after becoming the first humans to summit the peak of Mount Everest in Nepal. File Photo by Jamling Tenzing Norgay/Wikimedia

In 2013, President Barack Obama signed legislation designating Pinnacles National Monument in California a national park. The legislation was introduced by Rep. Sam Farr, D-Calif.

In 2017, a federal jury sentenced self-avowed White supremacist Dylann Roof to death for shooting to death nine people at a historic Black church in Charleston, S.C.

In 2022, the U.S. Mint announced it began shipping a new quarter featuring poet Maya Angelou, the first U.S. coin to feature a Black woman.

In 2024, gunmen besieged the TC Television studio during a live broadcast, taking hostages in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Police freed the hostages and arrested 13 people in the incident.