Today in history — June 20

1214: Oxford University is chartered.  The charter is negotiated on behalf of the University by Italian Cardinal Nicholas de Romanis, the Papal Legate to England.

1782: The U.S. Congress adopts the Great Seal of the United States. The story that the “eye-on-the-pyramid” on the reverse of the seal is some kind of Masonic sign is a myth; the eye is that of God, who “has favored our undertakings” (Annuit Cœptis).

1863: West Virginia enters the Union as the 35th state.

1893: Lizzie Andrew Borden is acquitted of murdering her father and stepmother. Contrary to the popular rhyme, they only received 29 whacks between them.

1939: Heinkel-Flugzeugwerke’s He-176 becomes the first liquid-fueled rocket aircraft to fly.  The German Luftwaffe isn’t interested and it winds up in a museum.

1948: Toast of the Town, later renamed the Ed Sullivan Show, premieres on CBS Television. The original guests, comics Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, pianist Eugene List, and tunesmiths Rogers & Hammerstein, are paid a total of $375.

1950: Future baseball Hall of Famer Willie Mays signs his first contract; the New York Giants give him a $6,000 signing bonus.

1977: The first oil begins to flow through the $7.7 billion Trans-Alaska Pipeline.

1996: Westinghouse Electric agrees to buy Infinity Broadcasting for $3.6 billion.

2002: China signs a contract to build a nuclear-powered desalination plant at Yingkou which will produce 80,000 tons of fresh water a day.