Today in History

Lech Walesa announces an accord in Poland, giving Saturdays off to laborers.

Ernesto Miranda, famous from the Supreme Court ruling on Miranda vs. Arizona is stabbed to death.

In Vietnam, the Tet Offensive begins as Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers attack strategic and civilian locations throughout South Vietnam.

U.S. planes resume bombing of North Vietnam after a 37-day pause.

Paris protests the Soviet recognition of Ho Chi Minh‘s Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

U.S. troops under Vice Adm. Spruance land on Kwajalien atoll in the Marshall Islands.

The Battle of Stalingrad ends as small groups of German soldiers of the Sixth Army surrender to the victorious Red Army forces.

Japanese forces begin the evacuation of Guadalcanal.

The Soviet premier tells Japan to get out of Manchuria.

Benjamin Hooks, civil rights leader.

Jackie Robinson, first African-American baseball player in the modern major leagues.

Germany resumes unlimited sub warfare, warning that all neutral ships that are in the war zone will be attacked.

President Woodrow Wilson refuses the compromise on Lusitania reparations.

German U-boats sink two British steamers in the English Channel.

The German Reichstag exempts royal families from tax obligations.

House of Representatives approves a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery.

A man with two pistols misfires at President Andrew Jackson at the White House.

Franz Schubert, Austrian composer (C Major Symphony, The Unfinished Symphony).

The Young Pretender, Charles Edward Stuart dies.

Robert Morris, signatory of the Declaration of Independence.

Virginia colony leaders write to the Virginia Company in England, asking for more orphaned apprentices for employment.

Guy Fawkes is hanged, drawn and quartered for his part in the Gunpowder Plot, an attempt to blow up Parliament.