Today in History
July 16
1999: John F. Kennedy Jr., son of former President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy, was killed in an airplane crash. He was 38. Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, his wife, and his sister-in-law were also killed.
1945: As a result of the Manhattan Project, the U.S. military tested it first nuclear bomb in the desert south of Los Alamos, New Mexico. In August, the U.S. Army dropped two atomic bombs on cities in Japan to force Japan's surrender to end World War II.
1790: The Residence Act, which stipulated that the president select a site on the Potomac River as the permanent capital of the United States following a ten-year temporary residence in Philadelphia, was signed into law. In a proclamation issued on January 24, 1791, President George Washington announced the permanent location of the new capital, an area of land at the confluence of the Potomac and Eastern Branch (Anacostia) Rivers that would eventually become the District of Columbia. Soon after, Washington commissioned French engineer Pierre-Charles L'Enfant to create a plan for the city. (Source: Library of Congress)
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