Today in History 15

On this day in …

* 1799, first US printed ballots authorized, Pennsylvania

* 1804, New Jersey becomes last northern state to abolish slavery

* 1879, President Hayes signed a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court

* 1898, the U.S. battleship Maine mysteriously blew up in Havana Harbor, killing more than 260 crew members and bringing the United States closer to war with Spain

* 1903, first Teddy Bear introduced in America, made by Morris & Rose Michtom

* 1933, President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt escaped an assassination attempt in Miami that claimed the life of Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak

* 1942, the British colony Singapore surrendered to the Japanese during World War II

* 1950, Walt Disney's "Cinderella" released

* 1965, Canada's new maple-leaf flag was unfurled in ceremonies in Ottawa

* 1986, the Philippines National Assembly proclaimed Ferdinand E.
Marcos president for another six years, following an election marked by allegations of fraud. (Marcos was later ousted.)

* 1989, the Soviet Union announced that the last of its troops had left Afghanistan, after more than nine years of military intervention

* 1990, baseball owners lock out players

* 1996, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Communications Decency Act, saying the government had to explain what material it considered indecent before it could enforce the law, designed to protect children from explicit material on computer networks

* 2001, President Bush said the Pentagon should review its policy on civilian participation in military exercises like the emergency ascent drill a Navy submarine was performing when it sank a Japanese fishing vessel off Hawaii

* 2005, Christopher Pittman, a teen who claimed the antidepressant Zoloft had driven him to kill his grandparents at age 12, was found guilty in Charleston, S.C., of murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison.