Today in History

Today in History

0537 The Goths lay siege to Rome.

1649 The peace of Rueil is signed between the Frondeurs (rebels) and the French government.

1665 A new legal code is approved for the Dutch and English towns, guaranteeing religious observances unhindered.

1702 The Daily Courant, the first regular English newspaper is published.

1810 The Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte is married by proxy to Archduchess Marie Louise.

1811 Ned Ludd leads a group of workers in a wild protest against mechanization.

1824 The U.S. War Department creates the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Seneca Indian Ely Parker becomes the first Indian to lead the Bureau.

1845 Seven hundred Maoris led by their chief, Hone-Heke, burn the small town of Kororareka in protest at the settlement of Maoriland by Europeans, in breach with the

1840 Treaty of Waitangi.

1861 A Confederate Convention is held in Montgomery, Ala., where the new constitution is adopted.

1863 Union troops under General Ulysess S. Grant give up their preparations to take Vicksburg after failing to pass Fort Pemberton, north of Vicksburg.

1865 Union General William Sherman and his forces occupy Fayetteville, N.C.

1888 A disastrous blizzard hits the northeastern United States. Some 400 people die, mainly from exposure.

1900 British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury rejects the peace overtures offered from Boer leader Paul Kruger.

1905 The Parisian subway is officially inaugurated.

1907 President Teddy Roosevelt induces California to revoke its anti-Japanese legislation.

1930 President Howard Taft becomes the first U.S. president to be buried in the National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.

1935 The German Air Force becomes an official organ of the Reich.

1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorizes the Lend-Lease Act which authorizes the act of giving war supplies to the Allies.

1942 General Douglas MacArthur leaves Bataan for Australia.

1965 The American navy begins inspecting Vietnamese junks in hopes of ending arms smuggling to the South.

1966 Three men are convicted of the murder of Malcolm X.

1969 Levi-Strauss starts to sell bell-bottomed jeans.

1973 An FBI agent is shot at Wounded Knee in South Dakota.

1985 Mikhail Gorbachev is named the new Soviet leader.

1990 Lithuania declares its independence from the Soviet Union.

Born

1731 Robert Treat Paine, Declaration of Independence signer

1860 Thomas Hastings, architect of the New York Public Library.

1885 Sir Michael Campbell, the first motorist to exceed

300 mph.

1899 Frederick IX, King of Denmark

1908 Lawrence Welk, orchestra leader.

1926 Ralph David Abernathy, civil rights leader, associate of Dr. King.

1952 Douglas Adams, British writer, (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy).

History