[Faithful]

On this date in:

1812 --- The United States declared war against Britain.

1815--- British and Prussian troops defeated the French under Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo in Belgium.

1873--- Suffragist Susan B. Anthony was fined $100 for attempting to vote in the 1872 presidential election.

1928--- Aviator Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean as she completed a flight from Newfoundland to Wales in about 21 hours.

1940--- With the World War II Battle of Britain looming, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill urged his countrymen to conduct themselves so that future generations would say, "this was their finest hour."

1945--- Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower received a tumultuous welcome in Washington, D.C., where he addressed a joint session of Congress.

1948--- Columbia Records unveiled its new long-playing, 33 1/3 rpm phonograph record.

1979--- President Jimmy Carter and Soviet President Leonid I. Brezhnev signed the SALT II strategic arms limitation treaty in Vienna.

1983--- Astronaut Sally K. Ride became America's first woman in space as she and four colleagues blasted off aboard the space shuttle Challenger.

1996--- Richard Allen Davis was convicted in San Jose, Calif., of the 1993 kidnap-murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas of Petaluma.

2002--- A Palestinian detonated a nail-studded bomb in a Jerusalem bus, killing 19 passengers and himself.

2004--- An al-Qaida cell in Saudi Arabia beheaded American engineer Paul M. Johnson Jr., posting grisly photographs of his severed head on the Internet; hours later, Saudi security forces tracked down and killed the alleged mastermind of the kidnapping and murder.

2004--- European Union leaders agreed on the first constitution for the bloc's 25 members.

2006--- Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori was elected the first female presiding bishop for the Episcopal Church, the U.S. arm of the global Anglican Communion.