On this day in ...... 1959, Anna Escobedo Cabral (right) was born in San Bernardino, California. She received a bachelor's degree in political science at the University of California, Davis, and then moved east to study public policy and law. After serving inter alia as a congressional staffer and as President of Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility, in 2004 Cabral assumed the post she continues to hold today: the 42d Treasurer of the United States.
... 1986, in Reykjavik, Iceland, a summit conference between President Ronald Reagan and Communist Party Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev amounted to a failed effort at U.S.-Soviet nuclear disarmament. According to the BBC, "the talks finally stalled over President Reagan's refusal to abandon his Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI)." (credit for image of original plan for SDI, a space-based defense system)
