Today in History

Today in History

490 BC Athenian and Plataean Hoplites commanded by General Miltiades drive back a Persian invasion force under General Datis at Marathon.

1213 Simon de Montfort defeats Raymond of Toulouse and Peter II of Aragon at Muret, France.

1609 Henry Hudson sails into what is now New York Harbor aboard his sloop Half Moon.

1662 Governor Berkley of Virginia is denied his attempts to repeal the Navigation Acts.

1683 A combined Austrian and Polish army defeats the Turks at Kahlenberg and lifts the siege on Vienna, Austria.

1722 The Treaty of St. Petersburg puts an end to the Russo-Persian War.

1786 Despite his failed efforts to suppress the American Revolution, Lord Cornwallis is appointed governor general of India.

1836 Mexican authorities crush the revolt which broke out on August 25.

1918 British troops retake Havincourt, Moeuvres, and Trescault along the Western Front.

1919 Adolf Hitler joins German Worker’s Party.

1939 In response to the invasion of Poland, the French Army advances into Germany. On this day they reach their furthest penetration-five miles.

1940 Italian forces begin an offensive into Egypt from Libya.

1940 The Lascaux Caves in France, with their prehistoric wall paintings, are discovered.

1944 American troops fight their way into Germany.

1945 French troops land in Indochina.

1969 President Richard Nixon orders a resumption in bombing North Vietnam.

1977 Steve Biko, a South African activist opposing apartheid, dies while in police custody.

1980 Military coup in Turkey.

1990 East and West Germany, along with the UK, US and USSR—the Allied nations that had occupied post-WWII Germany—sign the final settlement for reunification of Germany.

1992 Space Shuttle Endeavor takes off on NASA’s

50th shuttle mission; its crew includes the first African-American woman in space, the first married couple, and the first Japanese citizen to fly in a US spacecraft.

2003 UN lifts sanctions against Libya in exchange for that country accepting responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 and paying recompense to victims’ families.

2007 Joseph Estrada, former president of the Philippines, is convicted of plunder.

2011 In New York City, the 9/11 Memorial Museum opens to the public.

Born

1812 Richard March Hoe, who built the first successful rotary printing press.

1829 Charles Dudley Warner, essayist and novelist who, with Mark Twain, wrote The Guilded Age.

1880 Henry L. Mencken, journalist and iconoclast known as the “Sage of Baltimore.”

1888 Maurice Chevalier, singer, dancer and actor.

1892 Alfred A. Knopf, American publisher.

1910 Alexander D. Langmuir, epidemiologist, created and led the U.S. Epidemic Intelligence Service.

1913 Jesse Owens, track and field athlete who won four medals at the Berlin Olympics in 1936.

1931 Kristin Hunter, author (God Bless the Child, The Survivors).

1931 George Jones, country singer.

1943 Michael Ondaatje, Canadian novelist and poet (The English Patient).

1949 Charles “Chic” Burlingame III, pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, that was hijacked and flown into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, by terrorists.

1956 Brian Robertson, singer, songwriter, musician (Thin Lizzy, Motorhead, Wild Horses bands).

1956 Richard “Ricky” Rudd, known as the “Iron Man” of NASCAR racing; he holds the record for the most consecutive NASCAR starts.

1981 Jennifer Hudson, singer, actress; numerous awards include a Grammy (Jennifer Hudson, 2008), and Oscar, Golden Globe and British Academy awards (Dreamgirls, 2006).

History