Today in History

Today in History

1626 Huguenot rebels and the French sign the Peace of La Rochelle.

1778 France recognizes the United States and signs a treaty of aid in Paris.

1788 Massachusetts becomes the sixth state to ratify the Constitution.

1862 Forces under the command of Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant and Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote capture Fort Henry, Tennessee, in the Battle of Fort Henry, giving the Union its first victory of the Civil War.

1891 The Dalton Gang commits its first crime, a train robbery in Alila, CA.

1899 The Spanish-American War ends.

1900 President McKinley appoints W.H. Taft as a commissioner to report on the Philippines.

1904 Japan’s foreign minister severs all ties with Russia, citing delaying tactics in negotiations over Manchuria.

1916 Germany admits full liability for the Lusitania incident and recognizes the right of the United State to claim indemnity.

1922 The Washington Disarmament Conference comes to an end with the ratification of the final treaty forbidding fortification of the Aleutian Islands for 14 years.

1926 Mussolini warns Germany to stop agitation in Tyrol.

1929 Germany accepts the Kellogg-Briand pact.

1933 Adolf Hitler‘s Third Reich begins press censorship.

1936 Adolf Hitler opens the Fourth Winter Olympics.

1941 The RAF clears the way as British take Benghazi, trapping thousands of Italians.

1944 Kwajalein Island in the Central Pacific falls to U.S.

Army troops.

1945 MacArthur reports the fall of Manila, and the liberation of 5,000 prisoners.

1952 Elizabeth becomes Queen of England after her father, King George VI, dies.

1963 The United States reports that all Soviet offensive arms are out of Cuba.

1964 Cuba blocks the water supply to the Guantanamo Naval Base in retaliation for the seizure by the United States of four Cuban fishing boats.

1964 Paris and London agree to build a rail tunnel under the English Channel.

1965 Seven U.S. GIs are killed in a Viet Cong raid on a base in Pleiku.

1968 Charles de Gaulle opens the 19th Winter Olympics in France.

1975 President Gerald Ford asks Congress for $497 million for aid to Cambodia.

1977 Queen Elizabeth marks her Silver Jubilee.

1982Civil rights workers begin a march from Carrolton to Montgomery, Alabama.

Born

1756 Aaron Burr, 3rd U.S. Vice President.

1895 George Herman “Babe” Ruth, baseball player with the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees and the Boston Braves. He was the first player to hit 60 home runs in one season.

1911 Ronald Reagan, film actor and 40th U.S. President

(1981-1989).

1913 Mary Douglas Leakey, archaeologist and paleoanthropologist.

1932 Francois Truffaut, French film director (The 400 Blows, Shoot the Piano Player).

1933 Walter E. Fauntroy, politician and civil rights leader.

1940 Tom Brokaw, NBC News anchorman.

1945 Bob Marley, reggae musician.

History