Today in History

Today in History

1622 Indians attack a group of colonists in the James River area of Virginia, killing 350 residents.

1630 The first legislation prohibiting gambling is enacted in Boston.

1664 Charles II gives large tracks of land from west of the Connecticut River to the east of Delaware Bay in North America to his brother James, the Duke of York.

1719 Frederick William abolishes serfdom on crown property in Prussia.

1765 The Stamp Act is passed, the first direct British tax on the American colonists.

1775 British statesman Edmund Burke makes a speech in the House of Commons, urging the government to adopt a policy of reconciliation with America.

1790 Thomas Jefferson becomes the first U.S. Secretary of State.

1794 Congress passes laws prohibiting slave trade with foreign countries although slavery remains legal in the United States.

1834 Horace Greeley publishes New Yorker, a weekly literary and news magazine and forerunner of Harold Ross’ more successful The New Yorker.

1901 Japan proclaims that it is determined to keep Russia from encroaching on Korea.

1904 The first color photograph is published in the London Daily Illustrated Mirror.

1907 Russians troops complete the evacuation of Manchuria in the face of advancing Japanese forces.

1915 A German Zepplin makes a night raid on Paris railway stations.

1919 The first international airline service is inaugurated on a weekly schedule between Paris and Brussels.

1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill legalizing the sale and possession of beer and wine.

1935 Persia is renamed Iran.

1946 First U.S. built rocket to leave the Earth’s atmosphere reaches a 50-mile height.

1948 The United States announces a land reform plan for Korea.

1954 The London gold market reopens for the first time since 1939.

1968 President Lyndon Johnson names General William Westmoreland as Army Chief of Staff.

1972 The U.S. Senate passes the Equal Rights Amendment. The amendment fails to achieve ratification.

1974 The Viet Cong propose a new truce with the United States and South Vietnam, which includes general elections.

1990 A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, finds Captain Hazelwood not guilty in the Valdez oil spill.

Born

1599 Sir Anthony Van Dyck, Flemish artist, the namesake of the beard style.

1797 Wilhelm I, German emperor (1871-88)

1846 Randolph Caldecott, illustrator.

1907 James Gavin, U.S. Army general of the 82nd Airborne Division in WWII.

1908 Louis L’Amour, American Western novelist.

1923 Marcel Marceau, French mime.

1930 Stephen Sondheim, American composer and lyricist (A Little Night Music, Passion).

1948 Andrew Lloyd Webber, British composer (The Phantom of the Opera, Cats)

History