Today in History

Today in History

1471 The Earl of Warwick, who fought on both sides in the War of the Roses, is killed at the Battle of Barnet with the defeat of the Lancastrians.

1543 Bartoleme Ferrelo returns to Spain after discovering a large bay in the New World (San Francisco).

1775 The first abolitionist society in United States is organized in Philadelphia.

1793 A royalist rebellion in Santo Domingo is crushed by French republican troops.

1828 The first edition of Noah Webster’s dictionary is published.

1860 The first Pony Express rider arrives in San Francisco with mail originating in St. Joseph, Missouri.

1865 President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated in Ford’s Theater by John Wilkes Booth.

1894 Thomas Edison’s kinetoscope is shown to the public for the first time.

1900 The World Exposition opens in Paris.

1912 The passenger liner Titanic–deemed unsinkable– strikes an iceberg on her maiden voyage and begins to sink. The ship will go under the next day with a loss of 1,500 lives.

1931 King Alfonso XIII of Spain is overthrown.

1945 American B-29 bombers’s damage the Imperial Palace during firebombing raid over Tokyo.

1953 The Viet Minh invade Laos with 40,00 troops in their war against French colonial forces.

1959 The Taft Memorial Bell Tower is dedicated in Washington, D.C.

1961 The first live broadcast is televised from the Soviet Union.

1969 The first major league baseball game is played in Montreal, Canada.

1981 America’s first space shuttle, Columbia, returns to Earth.

Born

1578 Philip III, king of Spain and Portugal (1598-

1621).

1629 Christian Huygens, Dutch astronomer.

1866 Anne Mansfield Sullivan, teacher who educated Helen Keller.

1889 Arnold Toynbee, English historian.

1898 Harold Black, electrical engineer.

1904 Sir John Gielgud, British actor.

History