Today in History

Today in History

1302 An army of French knights, led by the Count of Artois, is routed by Flemish pikemen.

1346 Charles IV of Luxembourg is elected Holy Roman Emperor in Germany.

1533 Henry VIII is excommunicated from the Catholic Church by Pope Clement VII.

1708 The French are defeated at Oudenarde, Malplaquet, in the Netherlands by the Duke of Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy.

1786 Morocco agrees to stop attacking American ships in the Mediterranean for a payment of $10,000.

1799 An Anglo-Turkish armada bombards Napoleon Bonaparte‘s troops in Alexandria to no avail.

1804 Alexander Hamilton is mortally wounded by Aaron Burr in a duel.

1862 President Abraham Lincoln appoints General Henry Halleck as general in chief of the Federal army.

1942 In the RAF’s longest bombing raid of World War II, 44 British Lancaster bombers attack the Polish port of Danzig.

1972 American forces break the 95-day siege at An Loc in Vietnam.

1975 Archaeologists unearth an army of 8,000 lifesize clay figures created more than 2,000 years ago for the Emperor Qin Shi Huangd.

1995 Full diplomatic relations are established between the United States and Vietnam.

Born

1274 Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland (1306-1329).

1767 John Quincy Adams, Sixth President of the United States (1825-1829).

1838 John Wanamaker, U.S. merchant, founder of one of the first American department stores.

1899 E.B. White, author (Charlotte’s Web).

1927 Theodore H. Maiman, physicist.

History