Today in History

Today in History

322 BC The Greek philosopher Aristotle dies.

161 On the death of Antoninus at Lorium, Marcus Aurelius becomes emperor.

1774 The British close the port of Boston to all commerce.

1799 In Palestine, Napoleon captures Jaffa and his men massacre more than 2,000 Albanian prisoners.

1809Aeronaut Jean Pierre Blanchard — the first person to make the an aerial voyage in the New World — died on March 7, 1809, at the age of 56.

1838 Soprano Jenny Lind (“the Swedish Nightingale”) makes her debut in Weber’s opera Der Freischultz.

1847 U.S. General Winfield Scott occupies Vera Cruz, Mexico.

1849 The Austrian Reichstag is dissolved.

1862 Confederate forces surprise the Union army at the Battle of Pea Ridge, in Arkansas, but the Union is victorious.

1876 Alexander Graham Bell is granted a patent for the telephone.

1904 The Japanese bomb the Russian town of Vladivostok.

1906 Finland becomes the third country to give women the right to vote, decreeing universal suffrage for all citizens over 24, however, barring those persons who are supported by the state.

1912 French aviator, Heri Seimet flies non-stop from London to Paris in three hours.

1918 Finland signs an alliance treaty with Germany.

1925 The Soviet Red Army occupies Outer Mongolia.

1927 ATexas law that bans Negroes from voting is ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

1933 The board game Monopoly is invented.

1933 The film King Kong premieres in New York City.

1935 Malcolm Campbell sets an auto speed record of 276.8 mph in Florida.

1936 Hitler sends German troops into the Rhineland, violating the Locarno Pact.

1942 Japanese troops land on New Guinea.

1951 U.N. forces in Korea under General Matthew Ridgeway launch Operation Ripper, an offensive to straighten out the U.N. front lines against the Chinese.

1968 The Battle of Saigon, begun on the day of the Tet Offensive, ends.

1971 A thousand U.S. planes bomb Cambodia and Laos.

1979 Voyager 1 reaches Jupiter.

Born

1707 Stephen Hopkins, signer of the Declaration of Independence.

1872 Piet Mondrian, Dutch abstract painter, leader of the movement known as “de Stijl.”

1875 Maurice Ravel, composer (“Bolero”).

1887 Helen Parkhurst, educator, developed a technique later known as the Dalton Plan.

1904 Reinhard Heydrich, German SS leader and architect of the “Final Solution.”

1907 Rolf Jacobsen, Norwegian poet.

1908 Anna Magnani, Italian actress.

History