Today in History

Today in History

1223 – In France, Louis VIII succeeded his father, Philip Augustus.

1430 – Joan of Arc, taken prisoner by the Burgundians in May, was handed over to Pierre Cauchon, the bishop of Beauvais.

1456 – Hungarians defeated the Ottomans at the Battle of Belgrade.

1536 – France and Portugal signed the naval treaty of Lyons, which aligned them against Spain.

1789 – French Revolution began with Parisians stormed the Bastille prison and released the seven prisoners inside.

1798 – The U.S. Congress passed the Sedition Act. The act made it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the U.S. government.

1868 – Alvin J. Fellows patented the tape measure.

1891 – The primacy of Thomas Edison's lamp patents was upheld in the court decision Electric Light Company vs. U.S. Electric Lighting Company.

1900 – European Allies retook Tientsin, China, from the rebelling Boxers.

1908 – 'The Adventures of Dolly' opened at the Union Square Theatre in New York City.

1911 – Harry N. Atwood landed an airplane on the lawn of the White House to accept an award from U.S. President William Taft.

1914 – Robert H. Goddard patented liquid rocket-fuel.

1933 – All German political parties except the Nazi Party were outlawed.

1940 – A force of German Ju-88 bombers attacked Suez, Egypt, from bases in Crete.

1941 – Vichy French Foreign Legionaries signed an armistice in Damascus, which allowed them to join the Free French Foreign Legion.

1945 – American battleships and cruisers bombarded the Japanese home islands for the first time.

1946 – Dr. Benjamin Spock’s 'The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care' was first published.

1951 – The George Washington Carver National Monument in Joplin, MO, became the first national park to honor an African American.

1958 – The army of Iraq overthrew the monarchy.

1965 – The American space probe Mariner 4 flew by Mars, and sent back photographs of the planet.

1967 – Eddie Mathews (Houston Astros) hit his 500th career home run.

1968 – Hank Aaron (Atlanta Braves) hit his 500th career home run.

1981 – The All-Star Game was postponed because of a

33-day-old baseball players strike. The game was held on August 9.

1998 – Los Angeles sued 15 tobacco companies for

$2.5 billion over the dangers of secondhand smoke.

2001 – Beijing was awarded the 2008 Olympics. It was the first time that the China had been awarded the games.

2003 – Jerry Springer officially filed papers to run for the U.S. Senate from Ohio.

2008 – The iTunes Music Store reached 10 million applications downloaded.

2008 – In Japan, construction began on the Tokyo Skytree tower.

2009 – The iTunes Music Store reached 1.5 billion applications downloaded.

2015 – NASA's New Horizons spacecraft became the first space mission to explore Pluto.

History