Today in History

Today in History

757 Stephen II ends his reign as Catholic Pope.

1478 Pazzi conspirators attack Lorenzo and kill Giuliano de’ Medici.

1514 Copernicus makes his first observations of Saturn.

1564 William Shakespeare is baptized.

1607 The British establish a colony at Cape Henry, Virginia.

1865 Joseph E. Johnston surrenders the Army of Tennessee to General William T. Sherman.

1915 Second Lieutenant William Rhodes-Moorhouse becomes the first airman to win the Victoria Cross after conducting a successful bombing raid.

1929 The first non-stop flight from England to India is completed.

1931 New York Yankee Lou Gehrig hits a home run but is called out for passing a runner, the mistake ultimately costs him the home run record.

1937 The ancient Basque town of Guernica in northern Spain is bombed by German planes.

1941 The first organ is played at a baseball stadium in Chicago.

1968 Students seize the administration building at Ohio State University.

1983 The Dow Jones Industrial Average breaks 1,200 for first time.

1986 The world’s worst nuclear disaster occurs at the Chernobyl power plant in the Soviet Union.

1994 Nelson Mandela wins the presidency in South Africa’s first multiracial elections.

Born

1718 Esek Hopkins, first commodore of the United States Navy.

1785 John James Audubon, artist and naturalist.

1812 Alfred Krupp, German arms merchant.

1822 Frederick Law Olmsted, landscape architect, designed New York’s central park.

1875 Syngman Rhee, South Korean statesman.

1893 Anita Loos, novelist and screenwriter (Gentleman Prefer Blondes).

1894 Rudolf Hess, Nazi leader.

1900 Charles Richter, physicist and seismologist.

1914 Bernard Malamud, novelist and short story writer (The Natural).

History