Today in History

Argentina elects its first woman president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

Libby "Scooter" Lewis, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, resigns after being indicted for "outing" CIA agent Valerie Plame.

The Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party wins election, giving Spain its first Socialist government since the death of right-wing President Francisco Franco.

Brad Paisley, country / Southern rock singer, songwriter, musician ("I’m Gonna Miss Her," "Letter to Me"); his many awards include the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year 2010.

Britain launches the satellite Prospero into orbit, using a Black Arrow carrier rocket; this is the first and so far (2013) only British satellite launched by a British rocket.

John Romero, game designer, developer; co-founded id Software (Doom, Quake).

Construction completed on St. Louis Arch; at 630 feet (192m), it is the world’s tallest arch.

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev orders Soviet missiles removed from Cuba, ending the Cuban Missile Crisis.

In a note to the OAS (Organization of American States), the United States charges that Cuba has been receiving substantial quantities of arms and numbers of military technicians" from the Soviet bloc.

William "Bill" Gates, the chairman and CEO of Microsoft Corporation, the world’s largest software firm.

Joe R. Lansdale, author ("Hap and Leonard" novel series, "Bubba Ho-Tep"); won World Horror Convention Grand Master Award 2007.

Bruce Jenner, athlete, actor; won gold medal in the Decathlon at the Summer Olympics in Montreal (1976).

Anton Schlecker, founder of the Schlecker Company, which operated retail stores across Europe.

Italy invades Greece, launching six divisions on four fronts from occupied Albania.

Anne Perry, an author of historical detective fiction, she was herself convicted at age 15 of aiding in the murder of a friend’s mother in New Zealand; their crime was the basis for the 1994 film Heavenly Creatures.

Charlie Daniels, country / Southern rock singer, songwriter, musician ("The Devil Went Down to Georgia").

Pan American Airways launches the first scheduled international flight.

Bowie Kuhn, Commissioner of Major League Baseball (1969–1984).

Over President Wilson’s veto, Congress passes the National Prohibition Act, or Volstead Act, named after its promoter, Congressman Andrew J. Volstead. It provides enforcement guidelines for the Prohibition Amendment.

Jonas Salk, U.S. scientist who developed the first vaccine against polio.

Richard Doll, English epidemiologist who established a link between tobacco smoke and cancer.

Francis Bacon, English artist who painted expressionist portraits.

The St. Louis police try a new investigation method: fingerprints.

Evelyn Waugh, English novelist who wrote Decline and Fall and Brideshead Revisited.

Race riots sparked by Booker T. Washington’s visit to the White House kill 34.

Howard Hansen, composer, director of the Eastman School of music.

The Statue of Liberty, originally named Liberty Enlightening the World, is dedicated at Liberty Island, N. Y., formerly Bedloe’s Island, by President Grover Cleveland

Gilbert Grosvenor, editor, turned the National Geographic Society’s irregularly published pamphlet into a periodical with a circulation of nearly two million.

In a rare night attack, Confederates under Gen. James Longstreet attack a Federal force near Chattanooga, Tennessee, hoping to cut their supply line, the "cracker line." They fail.

Eli Whitney applies for a patent on the cotton gin, a machine which cleans the tight-clinging seeds from short-staple cotton easily and effectively–a job which was previously done by hand.

Germans and Acadians join French Creoles in their armed revolt against the Spanish governor of New Orleans.

Harvard College, the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, is founded in Cambridge, Mass.

After a fifteen-month siege, the Huguenot town of La Rochelle surrenders to royal forces.

Henry III of England is crowned.

After a prolonged siege, the Byzantines end 300 years of Arab rule in Antioch.

Constantine the Great defeats Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius at the Mulvian Bridge.