Today in History

Imprisoned Irish Republican Army hunger striker Bobby Sands is elected to the British Parliament.

Yitzhak Rabin replaces resigning Israeli Prime Minister, Golda Meir.

The American table tennis team arrives in China.

Jackie Robinson becomes the first black to play major league baseball as he takes the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Allied troops liberate the Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald north of Weener, Germany.

Paul Theroux, author (The Great Railway Bazaar).

Germany annexes Austria.

David Halberstam, New York Times correspondent, author, Pulitzer Prize winner in 1964.

Omar Sharif (Michael Shalhoub), actor (Dr. Zhivago).

The first synthetic rubber is produced.

F. Scott Fitzgerald publishes The Great Gatsby.

Robert B. Woodward, synthetic chemist.

The Titanic begins her maiden voyage which will end in disaster.

Clare Boothe Luce, reporter, U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.

South African Boers accept British terms of surrender.

Frances Perkins, U.S. labor secretary, first female cabinet member.

A.E. (George William Russell), Irish poet and mystic.

The American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is formed.

At Appomattox Court, Va, General Robert E. Lee issues his last orders to the Army of Northern Virginia.

Union forces begin the bombardment of Fort Pulaski in Georgia along the Tybee River.

Lew Wallace, Civil War general, lawyer, diplomat and author of Ben Hur.

Austria declares war on France and her forces enter Bavaria.

Matthew C. Perry, American naval officer, opened Japan to trade with the west.

The U.S. patent system is established.

Hugo Grotius, Dutch statesman and scholar.