Today in History

Today in History

History

1289 Qalawun, the Sultan of Egypt, captures Tripoli.

1429 Joan of Arc leads French forces to victory over English at Orleans.

1624 Louis XIII appoints Cardinal Richelieu chief minister of the Royal Council of France.

1661 The Chinese Ming dynasty occupies Taiwan.

1672 King Louis XIV of France invades the Netherlands.

1813 Rubber is patented.

1852 The first edition of Peter Roget’s Thesaurus is published.

1856 Yokut Indians repel a second attack by the ‘Petticoat Rangers,’ a band of civilian Indian fighters at Four Creeks, California.

1858 Austrian troops invade Piedmont.

1859 As the French army races to support them and the Austrian army mobilizes to oppose them, 150,000 Piedmontese troops invade Piedmontese territory.

1861 The Maryland House of Delegates votes against seceding from Union.

1862 Forts Philip and Jackson surrender to Admiral David Farragut outside New Orleans.

1913 Gideon Sundback of Hoboken patents the allpurpose zipper.

1916 Irish nationalists surrender to the British in Dublin.

1918 America’s WWI Ace of Aces, Eddie Rickenbacker, scores his first victory with the help of Captain James Norman Hall.

1924 Open revolt breaks out in Santa Clara, Cuba.

1927 Construction of the Spirit of St. Louis is completed.

1930 The film All Quiet on theWestern Front, based on Erich Maria Remarque’s novel Im Western Nichts Neues, premiers.

1945 The German Army in Italy surrenders unconditionally to the Allies.

1945 The Nazi concentration camp of Dachau is liberated by Allied troops.

1946 Former Japanese leaders are indicted in Tokyo as war criminals.

1975 The U.S. embassy in Vietnam is evacuated as North Vietnamese forces fight their way into Saigon.

1983 Harold Washington is sworn in as Chicago’s first black mayor.

1992 Four Los Angeles police offices are acquitted of charges stemming from the beating of Rodney King. Rioting ensues.

Born 1745 Oliver Ellsworth, third Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

1818 Alexander II, Czar of Russia.

1863 William Randolph Hearst, American newspaper publisher.

1877 Tad Dorgan, cartoonist and columnist.

1879 Sir Thomas Beecham, founder of the London Philharmonic.

1899 Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington, renowned jazz composer and musician.

1901 Hirohito, emperor of Japan during and after World War II.