Today in History

Today in History

1408 The revolt of Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, against King Henry IV, ends with his defeat and death at Bramham Moor.

1701 Philip V of Spain makes his ceremonial entry into Madrid.

1807 Vice President Aaron Burr is arrested in Alabama for treason. He is later found innocent.

1847 Rescuers finally reach the ill-fated Donner Party in the Sierras.

1861 Russian Tsar Alexander II abolishes serfdom.

1902 Smallpox vaccination becomes obligatory in France.

1903 The Austria-Hungary government decrees a mandatory two year military service.

1915 British and French warships begin their attacks on the Turkish forts at the mouth of the Dardenelles, in an abortive expedition to force the straits of Gallipoli.

1917 American troops are recalled from the Mexican border.

1919 The First Pan African Congress meets in Paris, France.

1925 President Calvin Coolidge proposes the phasing out of inheritance tax.

1926 Dr. Lane of Princeton estimates the earth’s age at one billion years.

1942 Port Darwin, on the northern coast of Australia, is bombed by the Japanese.

1944 The U.S. Eighth Air Force and Royal Air Force begin “Big Week,” a series of heavy bomber attacks against German aircraft production facilities.

1965 Fourteen Vietnam War protesters are arrested for blocking the United Nations’ doors in New York.

1966 Robert F. Kennedy suggests the United States offer the Vietcong a role in governing South Vietnam.

1976 Britain slashes welfare spending.

1981 The U.S. State Department calls El Salvador a “textbook case” of a Communist plot.

1987 New York Governor Mario Cuomo declares that he will not run for president in the next election.

Born

1473 Nicholas Copernicus, Polish astronomer who introduced the idea that the earth revolved around the sun.

1683 Philip V, King of Spain.

1817 William III, King of the Netherlands.

1859 Svante Arrhenius, Swedish chemist, founder of physical chemistry.

1902 Kay Boyle, short story writer (“The White Horses of Vienna”).

1911 Merle Oberon, film actress.

1917 Carson McCuller, writer (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter).

1940 Smokey Robinson, American singer and songwriter.

1952 Amy Tan, novelist (The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife).

History