Today in History

Terrorist bombings in Baghdad kill over 150 and wound over 700.

Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Brabant; heiress apparent to the Belgian throne.

The last soldiers of the Yugoslav People’s Army leaves the Republic of Slovenia.

Katy Perry, singer, songwriter; (“Part of Me”; “Roar”) named Billboard magazine’s Woman of the Year 2012.

1,800 U.S. troops and 300 Caribbean troops land on Grenada. U.S. forces soon turn up evidence of a strong Cuban and Soviet presence–large stores of arms and documents suggesting close links to Cuba.

Midori Goto, violinist.

Adam Pascal, actor, singer (Rent; Aida).

Nicole, German singer, won 1982 Errovision Song Contest singing “Ein biBchen Frieden” (“A Little Peace”); the English version reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart.

In South Africa, civil rights activist Nelson Mandela is sentenced to 5 years in prison.

Martin Luther King, Jr., is sentenced to four months in jail for a sit-in.

The last U.S. troops leave Beirut.

Nancy Cartwright, voice actress; voice of Bart Simpson and other characters in the long-running animated TV series The Simpsons.

President Eisenhower conducts the first televised Cabinet meeting.

In a general election, England’s Labour Party loses to Conservatives. Winston Churchill becomes prime minister, and Anthony Eden becomes foreign secretary.

Chinese Communist Forces launch their first-phase offensive across the Yalu River into North Korea.

The Japanese are defeated in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the world’s largest sea engagement. From this point on, the depleted Japanese Navy increasingly resorts to the suicidal attacks of Kamikaze fighters.

Anne Tyler, novelist (The Accidental Tourist, Ladder of Years).

German troops capture Kharkov and launch a new drive toward Moscow.

The Teapot Dome scandal comes to public attention as Senator Thomas J. Walsh of Montana, subcommittee chairman, reveals the findings of the past 18 months of investigation. His case will result in the conviction of Harry F. Sinclair of Mammoth Oil, and later Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall, the first cabinet member in American history to go to jail. The scandal, named for the Teapot Dome oil reserves in Wyoming, involved Fall secretly leasing naval oil reserve lands to private companies.

German pilot Rudolf von Eschwege shoots down his first enemy plane, a Nieuport 12 of the Royal Naval Air Service over Bulgaria.

John Berryman, poet.

Henry Steele Commager, American historian who wrote the fifty-five volume Rise of the American Nation.

Abel Gance, film director (Napoleon).

Richard E. Byrd, U.S. aviator and explorer who made the first flight over the North Pole.

Pablo Picasso, painter and sculptor or over 6,000 works.

During the Crimean War, a brigade of British light infantry is destroyed by Russian artillery as they charge down a narrow corridor in full view of the Russians.

Georges Bizet, composer, best known for his opera Carmen.

Johann Strauss, composer.

George III of England crowned.

An English army under Henry V defeats the French at Agincourt, France. The French had out numbered Henry’s troops 60,000 to 12,000 but British longbows turned the tide of the battle.