Today in History

Today in History

1527 German troops begin sacking Rome. Libraries are destroyed, the Pope is captured and thousands are killed.

1529 Babur defeats the Afghan Chiefs in the Battle of Ghaghra, India.

1682 King Louis XIV moves his court to Versailles, France.

1856 U.S. Army troops from Fort Tejon and Fort Miller prepare to ride out to protect Keyesville, California, from Yokut Indian attack.

1861 Arkansas becomes the ninth state to secede from the Union.

1862 Henry David Thoreau dies of tuberculosis at age

44.

1864 In the second day of the Battle of the Wilderness between Union General Ulysses S. Grant and Confederate General Robert E. Lee, Confederate Gen. James Longstreet is wounded by his own men.

1877 Chief Crazy Horse surrenders to U.S. troops in Nebraska. Crazy Horse brought General George Custer to his end.

1937 The dirigible Hindenburg explodes in flames at Lakehurst, New Jersey.

1941 Bob Hope gives his first USO show at California’s March Field.

1942 General Jonathan Wainwright surrenders Corregidor to the Japanese.

1944 The Red Army besieges and captures Sevastopol in the Crimea.

1945 Axis Sally makes her final propaganda broadcast to Allied troops.

1954 British runner Roger Bannister breaks the four minute mile.

1960 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Civil Rights Act of 1960.

1962 The first nuclear warhead is fired from a Polaris submarine.

1994 The Channel Tunnel linking England to France is officially opened.

Born

973 Henry II, Holy Roman emperor.

1740 John Penn, signer of the Declaration of Independence.

1758 Maximilien Robespierre, French revolutionary.

1840 Frederick William Stowe, son of the Harriet Beecher Stowe.

1856 Robert Edward Peary, arctic explorer and the first man to reach the North Pole.

1856 Sigmund Freud, Austrian neurologist, founder of psychoanalysis.

1868 Gaston Leroux, French novelist (The Phantom of the Opera).

1888 Russell Stover, candy manufacturer.

1895 Rudolph Valentino, actor, film icon.

1902 Max Ophuls, film director (La Ronde, Lola Montes).

1915 Orson Welles, actor, director, and writer (Citizen Kane).

1931 Willie Mays, baseball player.

1942 Ariel Dorfman, Chilean writer (Death and the Maiden).

History