On this day in 1932, in Washington, D.C., the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (better known as the FBI Crime Lab) officially opened.
On this day in 1971, during a severe thunderstorm over Washington state, a hijacker calling himself Dan Cooper (aka D. B. Cooper) parachuted from a Northwest Orient Airlines plane with $200,000 in ransom money. He was found.
On this day in 1973, a national speed limit was imposed on the Autobahn in Germany because of the 1973 oil crisis. The speed limit lasted only four months.