Today in History

Today in History

1652 The Dutch establish a settlement at Cape Town, South Africa.

1712 A slave revolt breaks out in New York City.

1798 The territory of Mississippi is organized.

1862 General Ulysses S. Grant defeats Confederates at Battle of Shiloh, Tenn.

1914 The British House of Commons passes the Irish Home Rule Bill.

1922 U.S. Secretary of Interior leases the Teapot Dome naval oil reserves in Wyoming.

1933 President Franklin Roosevelt signs legislation ending prohibition in the United States.

1943 British and American armies link up between Wadi Akarit and El Guettar in North Africa, forming a solid line against the German army.

1945 The Japanese battleship Yamato, the world’s largest battleship, is sunk during the Battle for Okinawa.

1963 Yugoslavia proclaims itself a Socialist republic.

1971 President Nixon pledges a withdrawal of

100,000 more men from Vietnam by December.

1980 The United States breaks relations with Iran.

1983 Specialist Story Musgrave and Don Peterson make the first Space Shuttle spacewalk.

1990 John Poindexter is found guilty in the Iran-Contra scandal.

Born

1770 William Wordsworth, English poet laureate (“The Prelude,” “Lyrical Ballards”).

1837 John Pierpont Morgan, U.S. industrialist.

1859 Walter Camp, father of American football.

1860 W.K. Kellogg, cereal magnate and health guru.

1897 Walter Winchell, American newscaster and columnist.

1915 Billie Holiday (Eleanora Fagan), jazz and blues singer.

1931 Donald Barthelme, writer.

1931 Daniel Ellsberg, anti-war activist, released the Pentagon Papers.

History