TODAY IN HISTORY

1775: The Continental Army, forerunner of the United States Army, was created.

1777: The Second Continental Congress approved the design of the original American flag.

1846: A group of U.S. settlers in Sonoma proclaimed the Republic of California.

1911: The British ocean liner RMS Olympic set out on its maiden voyage for New York, arriving one week later. (The ship’s captain was Edward John Smith, who went on to command the ill-fated RMS Titanic the following year.)

1922: Warren G. Harding became the first president heard on radio, as Baltimore station WEAR broadcast his speech dedicating the Francis Scott Key memorial at Fort McHenry.

1940: German troops entered Paris during World War II; the same day, the Nazis began transporting prisoners to the Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland.

1954: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a measure adding the phrase “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.

1972: The Environmental Protection Agency ordered a ban on domestic use of the pesticide DDT, to take effect at year’s end.

1982: Argentine forces surrendered to British troops on the disputed Falkland Islands.

1993: President Bill Clinton nominated Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

2011: President Barack Obama made a four-hour visit to Puerto Rico, becoming the first president since John F. Kennedy to make an official visit to the U.S. territory.