Today in History

The U.S. merchant ship Mayaguez is seized by Cambodian forces.

Viet Cong sappers try unsuccessfully to overrun Landing Zone Snoopy in Vietnam.

The Berlin Blockade ends.

Axis forces in North Africa surrender.

The Soviet Army launches its first major offensive of the war, taking Kharkov in the eastern Ukraine.

The Nazi conquest of France begins with the crossing Musee River.

Frank Stella, painter.

Alcoholics Anonymous is founded in Akron, Ohio by “Bill W.,” a stockbroker, and “Dr. Bob S.,” a heart surgeon.

Andrei Andreyevich Voznesensky, Russian poet.

The body of Charles Lindbergh’s baby is found.

The Airship Norge becomes the first vessel to fly over the North Pole.

Yogi Berra (Lawrence Peter Berra), baseball player and coach.

Farley Mowat, Canadian nature writer (Never Cry Wolf).

Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Katherine Hepburn, actress (The Philadelphia Story, The African Queen).

In the Battle of Batoche, French Canadians rebel against the Canadian government.

Tunisia, in North Africa becomes a French protectorate.

The last land battle of the Civil war occurs at Palmito Ranch, Texas. It is a Confederate victory.

Union General Benjamin Butler attacks Drewry’s Bluff on the James River.

With a victory at the Battle of Raymond, Mississippi, Union General Ulysses S. Grant closes in on Vicksburg.

The Tule River War ends.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, English poet and painter.

Florence Nightingale, English nurse and hospital reformer.

Edmund Beckett Grimthorpe, lawyer and architect.

Edward Lear, poet, painter and the youngest of 21 children.

Charleston, South Carolina falls to British forces.

The chief advisor to Charles I, Thomas Wentworth, is beheaded in the Tower of London

King Henry III flees Paris after Henry of Guise triumphantly enters the city.

St. Stephen I begins his reign as Catholic Pope.