Today in History

Today in History

515 BC The building of the great Jewish temple in Jerusalem is completed.

241 BC The Roman fleet sinks 50 Carthaginian ships in the Battle of Aegusa.

49 BC Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon and invades Italy.

1656 In the colony of Virginia, suffrage is extended to all free men regardless of their religion.

1776 “Common Sense” by Thomas Paine is published.

1785 Thomas Jefferson is appointed minister to France.

1806 The Dutch in Cape Town, South Africa surrender to the British.

1814 Napoleon Bonaparte is defeated by an allied army at the Battle of Laon, France.

1848 The treaty of Guadeloupe-Hidalgo is signed which ends the United States’ war with Mexico.

1876 Alexander Graham Bell makes the first telephone call to Thomas Watson saying “Watson, come here. I need you.”

1893 New Mexico State University cancels its first graduation ceremony, because the only graduate was robbed and killed the night before.

1902 The Boers of South Africa score their last victory over the British, capturing British General Methuen and 200 men.

1910 Slavery is abolished in China.

1924 The U.S. Supreme Court upholds a New York state law forbidding late-night work for women.

1927 Prussia lifts its Nazi ban, Adolf Hitler is allowed to speak in public.

1933 Nevada becomes the first U.S. state to regulate drugs.

1941 Vichy France threatens to use its navy unless Britain allows food to reach France.

1943 Adolf Hitler calls Field Marshall Erwin Rommel back from Tunisia in North Africa.

1944 The Irish refuse to oust all Axis envoys and deny the accusation of spying on Allied troops.

1945 American B-29 bombers attack Tokyo, killing

100,000.

1947 The Big Four meet in Moscow to discuss the future of Germany.

1948 Author Zelda Fitzgerald (wife of F. Scott) dies in a fire at Highland Hospital.

1953 North Korean gunners at Wonsan fire on the USS Missouri, the ship responds by firing 998 rounds at the enemy position.

1954 President Dwight Eisenhower calls Senator Joseph McCarthy a peril to the Republican Party.

1966 The North Vietnamese capture a Green Beret camp at Ashau Valley.

1969 James Earl Ray pleads guilty to the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King and is sentenced to 99 years in jail.

1971 The Senate approves a Constitutional amendment to lower the voting age to 18.

1975 The North Vietnamese Army attacks the South Vietnamese town of Ban Me Thout, the offensive will end with total victory in Vietnam.

1980 Iran’s leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, lends his support to the militants holding the American hostages in Tehran.

1982 The United States bans Libyan oil imports, because of the continued support of terrorism.

1987 The Vatican condemns surrogate parenting as well as test-tube and artificial insemination.

Born

1503 Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor.

1772 Friedrich Von Schlegel, German romantic poet and critic (Philosophy of History, History of Literature).

1845 Alexander III, Russian czar.

1845 Hallie Quinn Brown, American educator, women’s rights leader.

1903 Leon Bismarck “Bix” Beiderbecke, jazz cornetist and composer.

History