Today
· 1862 ÷ President Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves in rebel states should be free as of Jan. 1, 1863.

· 1949 ÷ The Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb.

· 1964 ÷ The musical Î'Fiddler on the Roof'' opened on Broadway, beginning a run of 3,242 performances.

Tuesday
· 1642 ÷ Harvard College in Cambridge, Mass., held its first commencement.

· 1999 ÷ Mars Climate Observer apparently burned up as it was about to go into orbit around the Red Planet.

Wednesday
· 1957 ÷ The Brooklyn Dodgers played their last game at Ebbets Field, defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-0.

· 1998 ÷ The Federal Reserve put into circulation $2 billion in harder-to-counterfeit $20 bills.

Thursday
· 1789 ÷ The first United States Congress adopted 12 amendments to the Constitution and sent them to the states for ratification. Ten of those amendments became the Bill of Rights.

· 1981 ÷ Sandra Day O'Connor was sworn in as the first female justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Friday
· 1789 ÷ Thomas Jefferson was appointed America's first secretary of state.

· 1991 ÷ Four men and four women began a two-year stay inside a sealed-off structure known as Biosphere 2 in Oracle, Ariz.