Today in History

Today in History

1770 Marie Antoinette marries future King Louis XVI of France.

1863 At the Battle of Champion’s Hill, Union General Ulysess S. Grant repulses the Confederates, driving them into Vicksburg.

1868 President Andrew Johnson is acquitted during Senate impeachment, by one vote, cast by Edmund G. Ross.

1879 The Treaty of Gandamak between Russia and England sets up the Afghan state.

1920 Joan of Arc is canonized in Rome.

1928 The first Academy Awards are held in Hollywood.

1943 A specially trained and equipped Royal Air Force squadron destroys two river dams in Germany.

1951 Chinese Communist Forces launch second step, fifth-phase offensive and gain up to 20 miles of territory.

1960 A Big Four summit in Paris collapses because of the American U-2 spy plane affair.

1963 After 22 Earth orbits, Gordon Cooper returns to Earth, ending the last mission of Project Mercury.

Born

1801 William Henry Seward, U.S. Secretary of State

(1861-1869).

1804 Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, founder of the first U.S. kindergarten.

1824 Edmund Kirby-Smith, Confederate general during the American Civil War.

1850 Johannes von Mikulica-Radecki, Polish surgical pioneer.

1886 Douglas Southall Freeman, journalist, historian, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer.

1905 Henry Fonda, American actor (Grapes of Wrath, On Golden Pond).

1912 Studs Terkel, author and historian.

1913 Woody Herman, jazz bandleader.

1929 Betty Carter, jazz singer.

1929 Adrienne Rich, poet (Diving into the Wreck).

1955 Olga Korbut, Olympic gymnast.

History