THIS DAY IN HISTORY:
In 1793, fleeing his debtors, 21-year-old Samuel Taylor Coleridge enlists in the Light Dragoons, an English cavalry unit.
In 1804, 200 years ago, Napoleon was crowned emperor of France.
In 1823, President Monroe outlined his doctrine opposing European expansion in the Western Hemisphere.
In 1859, militant abolitionist John Brown was hanged for his raid on Harper's Ferry the previous October.
In 1939, New York's La Guardia Airport began operations as an airliner from Chicago landed at one minute past midnight.
In 1942, a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated for the first time, at the University of Chicago.
Fifty years ago, in 1954, the Senate voted to condemn Wisconsin Republican Joseph R. McCarthy for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute."
In 1961, following a year of severely strained relations between the United States and Cuba, Cuban leader Fidel Castro openly declared that he is a Marxist-Leninist
In 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency began operating under director William Ruckelshaus.
In 1980, four American churchwomen were raped, murdered and buried outside San Salvador.
In 1982, in the first operation of its kind, doctors at the University of Utah Medical Center implanted a permanent artificial heart in the chest of retired dentist Dr. Barney Clark, who lived 112 days with the device.
In 1993, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar was shot to death by security forces in Medellin.
Ten years ago today: The government agreed not to seek a recall of allegedly fire-prone General Motors pickup trucks, striking a deal with GM under which the automaker would spend more than 51 million dollars on safety and research. Reputed "Hollywood Madam" Heidi Fleiss was convicted in Los Angeles of three counts of pandering.
Five years ago today: Relative calm took over in Seattle, where a meeting of the World Trade Organization was greeted earlier with sometimes violent demonstrations. All six Republican presidential hopefuls, including Texas Gov. George W. Bush, debated in Manchester, N.H. In Northern Ireland, a power-sharing Cabinet of Protestants and Catholics sat down together for the first time.
In 2001, in one of the largest corporate bankruptcies in U.S. history, Enron filed for Chapter 11 protection.
One year ago today: The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that after knocking, police don't have to wait longer than 20 seconds before breaking into the home of a drug suspect. Authorities in Ohio announced that they had linked 12 shootings along a five-mile stretch of interstate around Columbus, including one that killed a woman and another that broke a window at an elementary school. (A suspect was arrested the following March.)
Today's Birthdays: Character actor Bill Erwin is 90. Former Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig is 80. Actress Julie Harris is 79. Former Attorney General Edwin Meese III is 73. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is 65. Actress Cathy Lee Crosby is 60. Movie director Penelope Spheeris is 59. Country singer John Wesley Ryles is 54. Actor Keith Szarabajka is 52. Actor Dan Butler is 50. NBC news broadcaster Stone Phillips is 50. Actor Dennis Christopher is 49. Actor Steven Bauer is 48. Country singer Joe Henry is 44. Rock musician Rick Savage (Def Leppard) is 44. Tennis Hall-of-Famer Tracy Austin is 42. Rock musician Nate Mendel (Foo Fighters) is 36. Actress Rena Sofer is 36. Rock singer Jimi HaHa (Jimmie's Chicken Shack) is 36. Actress Lucy Liu is 36. Rapper Treach (Naughty By Nature) is 34. Tennis player Monica Seles is 31. Singer Nelly Furtado is 26. Singer Britney Spears is 23.