On this date in . . .

1792: The Presbyterian pioneer of congressional singing, Lowell Mason, was born. He composed the music for a thousand hymns, including "Nearer My God to Thee," "Blest Be the Tie That Binds," and "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross."

1932: The low point in the Great Depression came when the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed out at 41.22. 

1958: The Recording Industry Association of America presented the first gold record album. The soundtrack "Oklahoma" had reached one million dollars in sales. The first gold single had been presented four months earlier for Perry Como's "Catch a Falling Star," meaning the single had sold one million copies.

1969: The U.S. government issued a patent for the game "Twister."

1974: Tracey Ann Sawyers and Lee Williams were married before 250 witnesses at the Sunshine Park Nudist Camp in New Jersey. The Rev. Ulas Mays and a reporter were the only ones wearing clothes.

1977: A copy of Marvel Comics #1 sold at a New York City convention of comic book collectors for $7,500. Sha­zam!

1980: Jello Biafra filed as a candidate for mayor of San Francisco. Jello, Klaus Flouride, and Ray Valium made up the punk group The Dead Kennedys. Jello was not elected.

1992: "Melrose Place" debuted on the Fox Network. At first a "lesson" drama, it evolved into a soap opera.

1995: With his own gravelly voice blaring from a boombox, disc jockey Wolfman Jack was buried in Belvidere, North Carolina. The gravestone displayed his real name, Robert Weston Smith, and the words, "One more time!"

1995: A Taiwan policeman, in debt from gambling on video games, was arrested after trying to rob a bank with a toy gun. Huang Hsin-min ditched the gun and a coat near the bank. The coat had his name in it.

1997: The Mayo Clinic warned that the diet drug "fen-phen" could cause heart and lung damage.

1997: County music's Marty Stuart and Connie Smith were married.

1997: Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

2003: Doctors in Singapore separated two 29-year-old Iranian sisters who had been joined at the head since birth but the women died during the 54-hour operation.

2004: Enron founder and former chairman Kenneth Lay pleaded innocent in Houston to charges related to the company's collapse. He was convicted in 2006. He died of heart disease in July 2006 while his case was on appeal.