Today in History

Today in History

1400 – Owain Glyndwr was proclaimed Prince of Wales after rebelling against English rule. He was the last Welsh-born Prince of Wales.

1620 – The Mayflower departed from Plymouth, England. The ship arrived at Provincetown, MA, on November 21st and then at Plymouth, MA, on December 26th. There were 102 passengers onboard.

1630 – The village of Shawmut changed its name to Boston.

1782 – The Great Seal of the United States was impressed on document to negotiate a prisoner of war agreement with the British. It was the first official use of the impression.

1810 – The Mexicans began a revolt against Spanish rule. Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a Catholic priest of Spanish descent, declared Mexico's independence from Spain in the small town of Dolores.

1893 – The 'Cherokee Strip' in Oklahoma was swarmed by hundreds of thousands of settlers.

1908 – General Motors was founded by William Crapo 'Billy' Durant. The company was formed by merging the Buick and Olds car companies.

1924 – Jim Bottomley knocked in 12 runs in a single game setting a major league baseball record.

1940 – U.S. President Roosevelt signed into law the Selective Training and Service Act, which set up the first peacetime military draft in U.S. history.

1940 – Samuel T. Rayburn of Texas was elected Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. He served for 17 years.

1941 – 'The Arkansas Traveler' debuted on CBS Radio. The show was later renamed 'The Bob Burns Show.'

1953 – 'The Robe' premiered at the Roxy Theater in New York. It was the first movie filmed in the wide screen CinemaScope process.

1953 – The St. Louis Browns of the American League were given permission to move to Baltimore, MD, where they became the Baltimore Orioles.

1963 – 'The Outer Limits' premiered on ABC-TV.

1965 – 'The Dean Martin Show' debuted on NBC-TV.

1968 – 'The Andy Griffith Show' was seen for the final time on CBS.

1972 – 'The Bob Newhart Show' premiered on CBSTV.

1974 – U.S. President Ford announced a conditional amnesty program for draft-evaders and deserters during the Vietnam War.

1976 – The Episcopal Church formally approved women to be ordained as priests and bishops.

1982 – In west Beirut, the massacre of hundreds of Palestinian men, women and children began in refugee camps of the Lebanese Christian militiamen.

1985 – The Communist Party in China announced changes in leadership that were designed to bring younger officials into power.

1987 – The Montreal Protocol was signed by 24 countries in an effort to save the Earth's ozone layer by reducing emissions of harmful chemicals by the year

2000.

1988 – Tom Browning pitched the 12th perfect game in major league baseball.

1990 – An eight-minute videotape of an address by U.S. President George H.W. Bush was shown on Iraqi television. The message warned that action of Saddam Hussein could plunge them into a war 'against the world.'

1994 – Exxon Corporation was ordered by federal jury to pay $5 billion in punitive damages to the people harmed by the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill.

1994 – Two astronauts from the space shuttle Discovery went on the first untethered spacewalk in 10 years.

1998 – Meryl Streep received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

History