Today in History

Today in History

1533 – Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s new queen, was crowned.

1774 – The British government ordered the Port of Boston closed.

1789 – The first U.S. congressional act on administering oaths became law.

1792 – Kentucky became the 15th state of the U.S.

1796 – Tennessee became the 16th state of the U.S.

1861 – The first skirmish of the U.S. Civil War took place at the Fairfax Court House, Virginia.

1869 – Thomas Edison received a patent for his electric voting machine.

1877 – U.S. troops were authorized to pursue bandits into Mexico.

1892 – The General Electric Company (GE) began operations after the merging of the Edison General Electric and the Thomson-Houston Electric companies.

1896 – In Paris, France, the first recorded automobile theft occurred. The Peugeot of Baron de Zuylen de Nyevelt was stolen by his mechanic.

1915 – Germany conducted the first zeppelin air raid over England.

1916 – The National Defense Act increased the strength of the U.S. National Guard by 450,000 men.

1921 – Arace riot erupted in Tulsa, OKlahoma. 85 people were killed.

1935 – The Ingersoll-Waterbury Company reported that it had produced 2.5 million Mickey Mouse watches during its 2-year association with Disney.

1938 – Baseball helmets were worn for the first time.

1939 – The Douglas DC-4 made its first passenger flight from Chicago to New York.

1941 – The German Army completed the capture of Crete as the Allied evacuation ended.

1942 – The U.S. began sending Lend-Lease materials to the Soviet Union.

1943 – During World War II, Germans shot down a civilian flight from Lisbon to London.

1944 – The French resistance was warned by a coded message from the British that the D-Day invasion was imminent.

1953 – Raymond Burr made his network-TV acting debut. It was in 'The Mask of Medusa' on ABC-TV's 'Twilight Theater.'

1954 – In the Peanuts comic strip, Linus' security blanket made its debut.

1958 – Charles de Gaulle became the premier of France.

1958 – IBM ended its design of machines that contained electronic tubes.

1961 – Radio listeners in New York, California, and Illinois were introduced to FM multiplex stereo broadcasting. A year later the FCC made this a standard.

1963 – Governor George Wallace vowed to defy an injunction that ordered the integration of the University of Alabama.

1970 – Zimbabwe came into existence. It was formerly known as Rhodesia.

1972 – In Iraq, The Ba'athist government nationalized the western-owned Iraq Petroleum Company and turned operations over to the Iraq National Oil Company.

1977 – The Soviet Union formally charged Jewish human rights activist Anatoly Shcharansky with treason. He was imprisoned until 1986.

1978 – The U.S. reported the finding of wiretaps in the American embassy in Moscow.

1979 – In the U.S., the government-controlled ceiling on oil prices ends. The control was phased out over 28 months.

1980 – Cable News Network (CNN) made its debut as the first all-news station.

1989 – Disney World's 'Typhoon Lagoon' opened.

1995 – At Disneyland Paris, the attraction 'Space Mountain: From The Earth to the Moon' opened.

1998 – In the U.S., the FDA approved a urine-only test for the AIDS virus.

1998 – A $124 million suit was brought against Goodyear Tire & Rubber that alleged discrimination

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