Today in History

Today in History

1097 – The Crusaders defeated the Turks at Dorylaeum.

1841 – The Erie Railroad rolled out its first passenger train.

1859 – Charles Blondin became the first person to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope.

1894 – Korea declared independence from China and asked for Japanese aid.

1908 – A meteor explosion in Siberia knocked down trees in a 40-mile radius and struck people unconscious some 40 miles away.

1912 – Belgian workers went on strike to demand universal suffrage.

1913 – Fighting broke out between Bulgaria and Greece and Spain. It was the beginning of the Second Balkan War.

1915 – During World War I, the Second Battle Artois ended when the French failed to take Vimy Ridge.

1921 – U.S. President Warren G. Harding appointed former President William Howard Taft chief justice of the United States.

1922 – Irish rebels in London assassinate Sir Henry Wilson, the British deputy for Northern Ireland.

1930 – France pulled its troops out of Germany’s Rhineland.

1934 – Adolf Hitler purged the Nazi Party by destroying the SA and bringing to power the SS in the 'Night of the Long Knives.'

1935 – Fascists caused an uproar at the League of Nations when Haile Selassie of Ethiopia speaks.

1936 – Margaret Mitchell’s book, 'Gone with the Wind,' was published.

1950 – U.S. President Harry Truman ordered U.S. troops into Korea and authorizes the draft.

1951 – On orders from Washington, General Matthew Ridgeway broadcasts that the United Nations was willing to discuss an armistice with North Korea.

1952 – CBS-TV debuted 'The Guiding Light.'

1953 – The first Corvette rolled off the Chevrolet assembly line in Flint, MI. It sold for $3,250.

1955 – The U.S. began funding West Germany’s rearmament.

1957 – The American occupation headquarters in Japan was dissolved.

1958 – The U.S. Congress passed a law authorizing the admission of Alaska as the 49th state in the Union.

1960 – The Katanga province seceded from Congo (upon Congo's independence from Belgium).

1962 – Los Angeles Dodger Sandy Koufax pitched his first no-hitter in a game with the New York Mets.

1964 – The last of U.N. troops left Congo after a fouryear effort to bring stability to the country.

1970 – The Cincinnati Reds moved to their new home at Riverfront Stadium.

1971 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the government could not prevent the Washington Post or the New York Times from publishing the Pentagon Papers.

1971 – The Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 11 returned to Earth. The three cosmonauts were found dead inside.

1971 – The 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified when Ohio became the 38th state to approve it. The amendment lowered the minimum voting age to 18.

1974 – Russian ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov defected in Toronto, Canada.

History