Today in History....December 29

On this day in …

1845, six months after the congress of the Republic of Texas accepts U.S. annexation of the territory, Texas is admitted into the United States as the 28th state

1908, Otto Zachow and William Besserdich of Clintonville, Wisconsin, received a patent for their four-wheel braking system, the prototype of all modern braking systems

1930, Japan renounced the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930

1940, London suffers its most devastating air raid when Germans firebomb the city. Hundreds of fires caused by the exploding bombs engulfed areas of London, but firefighters showed a valiant indifference to the bombs falling around them and saved much of the city from destruction. The next day, a newspaper photo of St. Paul's Cathedral standing undamaged amid the smoke and flames seemed to symbolize the capital's unconquerable spirit during the Battle of Britain

1975,

Trusts and would-be monopolies were put on notice, as the Celler-Kefauver Anti-merger Act, a potent piece of anti-trust legislation, made its way into the law books

A bomb exploded in the main terminal of New York's LaGuardia Airport, killing 11 people. The perps were never caught
1989, playwright Vaclav Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia by the country's Federal Assembly, becoming the first noncommunist to attain the post in more than four decades

1996, war-weary guerrilla and government leaders in Guatemala signed an accord ending 36 years of civil conflict

2001, a fire sparked by a fireworks explosion in downtown Lima, Peru, killed 274 people

2005, international monitors said they would review Iraq's parliamentary elections in response to fraud complaints by Sunni Arab and secular Shiite groups