Today in History

Today in History

1064 – Coimbra, Portugal fell to Ferdinand, the King of Castile.

1534 – Jacques Cartier became the first to sail into the river he named Saint Lawrence.

1790 – John Barry copyrighted 'Philadelphia Spelling Book.' It was the first American book to be copyrighted.

1790 – Civil war broke out in Martinique.

1860 – The Ms. Ann Stevens book 'Malaeska, the Indian Wife of the White Hunter' was offered for sale for a dime. It was the first published 'dime novel.'

1861 – Mary Ann 'Mother' Bickerdyke began working in Union hospitals.

1923 – Bulgaria's government was overthrown by the military.

1931 – Robert H. Goddard patented a rocket-fueled aircraft design.

1934 – Donald Duck made his debut in the Silly Symphonies cartoon 'The Wise Little Hen.'

1940 – Norway surrendered to the Nazis during World War II.

1943 – The withholding tax on payrolls was authorized by the U.S. Congress.

1945 – Japanese Premier Kantaro Suzuki declared that Japan would fight to the last rather than accept unconditional surrender.

1946 – Mel Ott (with the New York Giants) became the first manager to be ejected from a doubleheader (both games).

1959 – The first ballistic missile carrying submarine, the USS George Washington, was launched.

1965 – Michel Jazy ran the mile in 3 minutes, 53.6 seconds. He broke the record set by Peter Snell in 1964.

1978 – Leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints struck down a 148-year-old policy of excluding black men from the Mormon priesthood.

1980 – Richard Pryor was severely burned by a 'freebase' mixture that exploded. He was hospitalized more than two months.

1985 – Thomas Sutherland, an American educator, was kidnapped in Lebanon. He was not released until November 1991.

1986 – The Rogers Commission released a report on the Challenger disaster. The report explained that the spacecraft blew up as a result of a failure in a solid rocket booster joint.

1999 – NATO and Yugoslavia signed a peace agreement over Kosovo.

2000 – Canada and the United States signed a border security agreement. The agreement called for the establishment of a border-enforcement team.

2000 – The U.S. House of Representatives voted to repeal gift and estate taxes. The bill called for the taxes to be phased out over 10 years.

2001 – Patrick Roy (Colorado Avalanche) became the first National Hockey League (NHL) player to win three Conn Smythe Trophies. The award is given to the playoff's Most Valuable Player.

2011 – The world's first artificial organ transplant was performed. It was an artificial windpipe coated with stem cells.

History