Today in History

Today in History

1242 Russian troops repel an invasion by Teutonic knights.

1614 Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe.

1792 George Washington casts the first presidential veto.

1843 Queen Victoria proclaims Hong Kong a British crown colony.

1861 Gideon Welles, the Secretary of the Navy issues official orders for the USS Powhatan to sail to Fort Sumter.

1865 As the Confederate army approaches Appomattox, it skirmishes with Union forces at Amelia Springs and Paine’s Cross Road.

1908 The Japanese Army reaches Yalu River as Russians retreat.

1919 Eamon de Valera becomes president of Ireland.

1930 Mahatma Gandhi defies British law by making salt in India instead of buying it from the British.

1941 German commandos secure docks along the Danube River in preparation for Germany’s invasion of the Balkans.

1943 The British 8th Army attacks the next blocking position of the retreating Axis forces at Wadi Akarit.

1951 Americans Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are sentenced to death for espionage.

1955 Winston Churchill resigns as British prime minister.

1986 A bomb explodes in a West Berlin disco packed with American soldiers.

Born

1588 Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher (Leviathan).

1827 Joseph Lister, English physician, founded the idea of using antiseptics during surgery.

1839 Robert Smalls, black congressman from South Carolina, 1875-87.

1856 Booker T. Washington, former slave, educator, founded the Tuskegee Institute.

1858 Washington Atlee Burpee, founder of the world’s largest mail-order seed company.

1900 Spencer Tracy, actor (Adam’s Rib, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner).

1908 Bette Davis, film actress (Jezebel, All About Eve).

1916 Gregory Peck, film actor (To Kill a Mockingbird).

1917 Robert Bloch, novelist (Psycho).

1920 Arthur Hailey, novelist (Hotel, Airport).

1923 Nguyen Van Thieu, president of South Vietnam.

1937 Colin Powell, U.S. Army general, Secretary of State.

History