Today in History

Today in History

1789 – The U.S. Congress authorized the office of Postmaster General.

1792 – The French Republic was proclaimed.

1862 – U.S. President Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. It stated that all slaves held within rebel states would be free as of January 1, 1863.

1903 – Italo Marchiony was granted a patent for the ice cream cone.

1914 – Three British cruisers were sunk by one German submarine in the North Sea. 1,400 British sailors were killed. This event alerted the British to the effectiveness of the submarine.

1927 – In Chicago, IL, Gene Tunney successfully defended his heavyweight boxing title against Jack Dempsey in the famous 'long-count' fight.

1949 – The Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb successfully.

1955 – Commercial television began in Great Britain. The rules said that only six minutes of ads were allowed each hour and there was no Sunday morning TV permitted.

1961 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy signed a congressional act that established the Peace Corps.

1964 – 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' debuted on NBCTV.

1966 – The U.S. lunar probe Surveyor 2 crashed into the moon.

1969 – Willie Mays hit his 600th career home run.

1980 – A border conflict between Iran and Iraq developed into a full-scale war.

1986 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan addressed the U.N. General Assembly and voiced a new hope for arms control. He also criticized the Soviet Union for arresting U.S. journalist Nicholas Daniloff.

1988 – Canada's government apologized for the internment of Japanese-Canadian's during World War II. They also promised compensation.

1990 – Saudi Arabia expelled most of the Yememin and Jordanian envoys in Riyadh. The Saudi accusations were unspecific.

1991 – An article in the London newspaper 'The Mail' revealed that John Cairncross admitted to being the 'fifth man' in the Soviet Union's British spy ring.

1992 – The U.N. General Assembly expelled Yugoslavia for its role in the war between Bosnia and Herzegovina.

1994 – The U.S. upgraded its military control in Haiti.

1998 – The U.S. and Russia signed two agreements. One was to privatize Russia's nuclear program and the other was to stop plutonium stockpiles and nuclear scientists from leaving the country.

1998 – U.S. President Clinton addressed the United Nations and told world leaders to 'end all nuclear tests for all time'. He then sent the long-delayed global testban treaty to the U.S. Senate.

1998 – Keely Smith received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Born

1515 Anne of Cleeves (born in Cleeves, Germany), fourth wife of Henry the VIII.

1694 Philip Dormer Stanhope, statesman of letters.

1788 Theodore Hook, English novelist best known for Impromptu at Fulham.

1791 Michael Faraday, English physicist, inventor of the dynamo, the transformer and the electric motor.

1885 Erich Von Stroheim, director, actor and screenwriter best known for Greed.

1902 John Houseman, director, producer and actor.

1909 David Riesman, sociologist, author of The Lonely Crowd.

1927 Tommy Lasorda, manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team from 1975 to 1996.

1933Fay Weldon, author (The Life and Loves of a She-Devil).

History