Today in History

Today in History

1670 The Hudson Bay Company is founded.

1598 Henry IV signs Treaty of Vervins, ending Spain’s interference in France.

1668 Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the War of Devolution in France.

1776 France and Spain agree to donate arms to American rebels fighting the British.

1797 A mutiny in the British navy spreads from Spithead to the rest of the fleet.

1798 The black General Toussaint Louverture forces British troops to agree to evacuate the port of Santo Domingo.

1808 The citizens of Madrid rise up against Napoleon.

1813 Napoleon defeats a Russian and Prussian army at Grossgorschen.

1863 Stonewall Jackson smashes Joseph Hooker’s flank at Chancellorsville, Virginia.

1865 President Andrew Johnson offers a $100,000 reward for the capture of the Confederate President

1885 King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo Free State.

1890 The Territory of Oklahoma is created.

1919 The first U.S. air passenger service starts.

1923 Lieutenants Oakley Kelly and John Macready take off from New York for the West Coast on what will become the first successful nonstop transcontinental flight.

1941 Hostilities break out between British forces in Iraq and that country’s pro-German faction.

1942 Admiral Chester J. Nimitz, convinced that the Japanese will attack Midway Island, visits the island to review its readiness.

1945 Russian forces take Berlin after 12 days of fierce house-to-house fighting.

1946 Prisoners revolt at California’s Alcatraz prison.

1968 The U.S. Army attacks Nhi Ha in South Vietnam and begins a fourteen-day battle to wrestle it away from Vietnamese Communists.

1970 Student anti-war protesters at Ohio’s Kent State University burn down the campus ROTC building. The National Guard takes control of campus.

Born

1729 Catherine II, Czarina of Russia.

1837 Henry Martyn Robert, parliamentarian (Robert’s Rules of Order).

1860 William Maddock Bayliss, British physiologist, co-discoverer of hormones.

1866 Jesse Lazear, American physician and researcher of yellow fever.

1877 Vernon Castle, ballroom dancer.

1892 Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron), German fighter ace of World War I.

1895 Lorenz Milton Hart, lyricist, collaborator with Richard Rodgers.

1903 Benjamin Spock, pediatrician, author and activist.

1921 Satyajit Ray, Indian film director (Aparajito, The World of Apu).

History