On this date in history:

In 1858, Minnesota joined the United States as the 32nd state.

In 1862, the Confederate navy destroyed its iron-clad vessel Merrimac to prevent it from falling into the hands of advancing Union forces.

In 1910, Glacier National Park in Montana was created by an act of Congress.

In 1924, Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler merged their companies, forming Mercedes-Benz.

In 1928, the first regularly scheduled television programs were begun by station WGY in Schenectady, N.Y.

In 1963, bombings in Birmingham, Ala., against non-violent Civil Rights campaigners triggered a crisis which led to the involvement of federal troops.

In 1987, Emmanuel Vitria died in Marseilles in southern France at age 67, 18 years after receiving a transplanted human heart. He was the longest-surviving heart transplant patient at that time.

In 1996, a ValuJet airliner crashed in the Florida Everglades, killing 110 people.

In 1997, IBM's Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov in a six-game rematch in New York. It was the second time the computer beat the world chess champion.

In 2009, Gen. David McKiernan, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, was fired and replaced by Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal. McChrystal resigned a year later following a damning article in Rolling Stone.

In 2018, an Australian man carried out a murder-suicide, killing himself, his wife, their daughter, and their four grandchildren.

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