Today in History

Today in History

1580 Sir Francis Drake returns to Plymouth, England, aboard the Golden Hind, after a 33-month voyage to circumnavigate the globe.

1777 The British army launches a major offensive, capturing Philadelphia.

1786 France and Britain sign a trade agreement in London.

1820 The legendary frontiersman Daniel Boone dies quietly at the Defiance, Mo., home of his son Nathan, at age 85.

1826 The Persian cavalry is routed by the Russians at the Battle of Ganja in the Russian Caucasus.

1829 Scotland Yard, the official British criminal investigation organization, is formed.

1864 General Nathan Bedford Forrest and his men assault a Federal garrison near Pulaski, Tennessee.

1901 Leon Czolgosz, who murdered President William McKinley, is sentenced to death..

1913 The first boat is raised in the locks of the Panama Canal.

1914 The Federal Trade Commission is established to foster competition by preventing monopolies in business.

1918 German Ace Ernst Udet shoots down two Allied planes, bringing his total for the war up to 62.

1937 Bessie Smith, known as the ‘Empress of the Blues,’ dies in a car crash in Mississippi.

1940 During the London Blitz, the underground Cabinet War Room suffers a hit when a bomb explodes on the Clive Steps.

1941 The U.S. Army establishes the Military Police Corps.

1950 General Douglas MacArthur‘s American X Corps, fresh from the Inchon landing, links up with the U.S. Eighth Army after its breakout from the Pusan Perimeter.

1955 The New York Stock Exchange suffers a $44 million loss.

1960 Vice President Richard Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy participate in the first nationally televised debate between presidential candidates.

1961 Nineteen-year-old Bob Dylan makes his New York singing debut at Gerde’s Folk City.

1967 Hanoi rejects a U.S. peace proposal.

1969 The Beatles last album, Abbey Road, is released.

1972 Richard M. Nixon meets with Emperor Hirohito in Anchorage, Alaska, the first-ever meeting of a U.S. President and a Japanese Monarch.

1977 Israel announces a cease-fire on Lebanese border.

1983 In the USSR Stanislav Petrov disobeys procedures and ignores electronic alarms indicating five incoming nuclear missiles, believing the US would launch more than five if it wanted to start a war. His decision prevented a retaliatory attack that would have begun a nuclear war between the superpowers..

1984 The UK agrees to transfer sovereignty of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China.

1997 Two earthquakes strike Italy, causing part of the Basilica of St. Francis to collapse, killing four people and destroying much of the cycle of frescoes depicting the saint’s life.

2008 Yves Rossy, a Swiss pilot and inventor, is the first person to fly a jet-powered wing across the English Channel.

Born

1783 Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman), American pioneer.

1783 Jane Taylor, children’s writer best known as the author of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

1887 Barnes Wallis, British aeronautical engineer who invented the “Bouncing Bombs” used to destroy German dams during World War II.

1888 T.S. Eliot, poet, critic, and dramatist whose work includes The Waste Land and Murder in the Cathedral.

1898 George Gershwin, composer who wrote many popular songs for musicals, along with his brother Ira.

1949 Jane Smiley, novelist (A Thousand Acres, Moo).

1953 Dolores Keane, Irish folk singer; founding member of band De Dannan.

1955 Carlene Carter, country-rock singer, songwriter, musician; daughter of June Carter, stepdaughter of Johnny Cash (“Keep It Out of Sight,” “Cool Reaction”).

1969 David Slade, director (Hard Candy, 30 Days of Night).

History