Today in History

NATO forces in Afghanistan attack a Pakistani checkpost in a friendly fire incident, killing 24 soldiers and wounding 13 others.

Yves Rossy, a Swiss pilot and inventor, is the first person to fly a jet-powered wing across the English Channel.

Former U.S. President Gerald R. Ford dies at age 93. Ford was the only unelected president in America’s history.

The shuttle Discovery launches on mission STS-114, marking a return to space after the shuttle Columbia crash of 2003.

A tsunami caused by a 9.3-magnitude earthquake kills more than 230,000 along the rim of the Indian Ocean.

Russian Spetsnaz storm the Moscow Theatre, where Chechen terrorists had taken the audience and performers hostage three days earlier; 50 terrorists and 150 hostages die in the assault.

The USA PATRIOT Act signed into law by Pres. George W. Bush, greatly expanding intelligence and legal agencies’ ability to utilize wiretaps, records searches and surveillance.

Samuel Sevian, chess prodigy; at age 12 became youngest-ever United States International Master.

Lothar, a violent, 36-hour windstorm begins; it kills 137 and causes $1.3 billion (US dollars) damage in Central Europe.

Tony Blair becomes the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to address the Republic of Ireland’s parliament.

Two earthquakes strike Italy, causing part of the Basilica of St. Francis to collapse, killing four people and destroying much of the cycle of frescoes depicting the saint’s life.

Workers in South Korea’s automotive and shipbuilding industries begin the largest labor strike in that country’s history, protesting a new law that made firing employees easier and would curtail the rights of labor groups to organize.

Israel and Jordan sign a peace treaty.

Roy Campanella, legendary catcher for the Negro Leagues and the Los Angeles Dodgers, dies.

An Indianapolis court finds heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson guilty of rape.

The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union formally dissolves the Soviet Union.

Daniel Ortega, communist president of Nicaragua, suffers a shocking election defeat at the hands of Violeta Chamorro.

The first free elections take place in the Soviet Union. Boris Yeltsin is elected.

The world’s worst nuclear disaster occurs at the Chernobyl power plant in the Soviet Union.

The UK agrees to transfer sovereignty of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China.

At London’s Heathrow Airport, almost 6,800 gold bars worth nearly £26 million stolen from Brinks-MAT vault.

Time magazine chooses a personal computer as it “Man of the Year,” the first non-human ever to receive the honor.

The Soviet Union flies 5,000 troops to intervene in the Afghanistan conflict.

Sigmund Jähn becomes first German to fly in space, on board Soviet Soyuz 31.

Israel announces a cease-fire on Lebanese border.

Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme is found guilty of an attempt on President Gerald Ford’s life.

A publisher and 10 reporters are subpoenaed to testify on Watergate.

Richard M. Nixon meets with Emperor Hirohito in Anchorage, Alaska, the first-ever meeting of a U.S. President and a Japanese Monarch.

The U.S. Justice Department issues a warrant for Daniel Ellsberg, accusing him of giving away the Pentagon Papers.

Gary Trudeau’s comic strip Doonesbury first appears.

David Slade, director (Hard Candy, 30 Days of Night).

Students seize the administration building at Ohio State University.

Keith Urban, singer, songwriter, musician; “Golden Road” (2002) named biggest country hit of the decade 2000–2010 by Billboard magazine.

Dr. Maulana Karenga celebrates the first Kwanza, a seven-day African-American celebration of family and heritage.

Norman Butler is arrested for the murder of Malcom X.

Lyndon B. Johnson signs a tax bill with $11.5 billion in cuts.

President John Kennedy announces “Ich bin ein Berliner” at the Berlin Wall.

Eight East Berliners escape to West Berlin, crashing through gates in an armor-plated bus.

Nineteen-year-old Bob Dylan makes his New York singing debut at Gerde’s Folk City.

Vice President Richard Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy participate in the first nationally televised debate between presidential candidates.

The first New York – Paris transatlantic jet passenger service is inaugurated by Pan Am, while the first New York – London transatlantic jet passenger service is inaugurated by BOAC.

President Eisenhower suffers a minor stroke.

Dale Jarrett, NASCAR driver; won 1999 Winston Cup Series championship.

Ngo Dinh Diem declares himself Premier of South Vietnam.

Velupillai Prabhakaran, founder and leader of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a militant organization that sought to create an independent Tamil state in Sri Lanka.

The United States announces the withdrawal of two divisions from Korea.

Will Shortz, American puzzle creator and editor.

The Soviet Union proposes a cease-fire in the Korean War.

North Korean and Chinese troops halt a UN offensive.

India becomes a sovereign Democratic republic.

In an Executive Order, President Harry Truman calls for the end of discrimination and segregation in the U.S. armed forces.

USMC General James T. Conway, commandant of the Marine Corps (2006-10); commanded 1st Marine Expeditionary Force during the Second Gulf War.

A patent is filed in the United States for the H-bomb.

John Walsh, TV personality, victims rights advocate; created of America’s Most Wanted TV series after the murder of his son Adam in 1981.

Advancing Soviet troops complete their encirclement of Budapest in Hungary.

The German battleship Scharnhorst is sunk by British ships in an Arctic fight.

Dan Massey, social activist, author; co-founder and CEO of VenusPlusX.

General Douglas MacArthur declares Manila an open city in the face of the onrushing Japanese Army.

During the London Blitz, the underground Cabinet War Room suffers a hit when a bomb explodes on the Clive Steps.

Phil Spector, record producer; creator of the “Wall of Sound” production method; convicted in 2009 of murdering actress Lana Clarkson, he was sentenced to 19 years to life in prison.

Rich Little, comedian, actor; noted for his ability to impersonate famous personalities.

Bessie Smith, known as the ‘Empress of the Blues,’ dies in a car crash in Mississippi.

Japanese military troops march into Tokyo to conduct a coup and assassinate political leaders.

Germany signs a 10-year non-aggression pact with Poland, breaking the French alliance system.

Robert Goulet, singer, actor.

Over 70,000 people are killed in a massive earthquake in China.

Colin Henry Wilson, British author (The Outsider).

Sandra Day O’Connor, U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

The first non-stop flight from England to India is completed.

Bernice Rubens, Welsh novelist and filmmaker.

Alan King, comedian, actor, producer, author (How to Pick Up Girls, Night and the CIty).

A memorial to the first U.S. troops in France is unveiled at St. Nazaire.

Six U.S. destroyers are ordered from Manila to China to protect interests in the civil war that is being waged there.

Frank Broyles, college football player and coach; member of College Football Hall of Fame.

James Arness, actor (Gunsmoke).

Charles M. Shultz, American cartoonist who created “Peanuts” starring Charlie Brown.

Steve Allen, radio and TV personality, actor, musician, comedian, writer; hosted The Steve Allen Show and I’ve Got a Secret; won a Grammy for his jazz composition “The Gravy Waltz” (1963).

Cyril Cusack, Irish actor.

Mohammed Reza Pahlevi, the Shah of Iran who was overthrown in 1979 and died in Egypt

Germany’s supreme commander, General Erich Ludendorff, resigns, protesting the terms to which the German Government has agreed in negotiating the armistice. This sets the stage for his later support for Hitler and the Nazis, who claim that Germany did not lose the war on the battlefield but were “stabbed in the back” by politicians.

As a wartime measure, President Woodrow Wilson places railroads under government control, with Secretary of War William McAdoo as director general.

French leader Francois Mitterrand.

Charlotte Zolotow, American children’s writer.

Richard Widmark, actor (Kiss of Death); member of Western Performers Hall of Fame.

The first boat is raised in the locks of the Panama Canal.

Eric Sevareid, American broadcast journalist for CBS News.

Mahalia Jackson, gospel singer.

Mother Teresa (Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu), missionary, Nobel Prize laureate for her work in the slums of Calcutta.

Tom Parker, Elvis Presley‘s manager.

Shah Muhammad Ali’s forces squelch the reform elements of Parliament in Persia.

Albert Gore Sr., US Senator from Tennessee who was instrumental in sponsoring and pushing through legislation that created America’s Interstate Highway System.

Albert Sabin, medical researcher, developed the polio vaccine.

William Loeb III, publisher of the Manchester Union Leader (later The New Hampshire Union Leader), one of the best-known small town newspapers in the US.

Peter Lorre, film actor (Casablanca, M).

Estes Kefauver, Tennessee senator.

Beryl Markham, aviator and writer.

The Hope diamond is brought to New York.

The United States announces it will send troops to fight against the Boxer Rebellion in China.

George Gershwin, composer who wrote many popular songs for musicals, along with his brother Ira.

The last czar of Russia, Nicholas II, is crowned.

Gracie Allen, actress, wife and foil of George Burns.

Jean Toomer, poet and novelist who figured prominently in the Harlem Renaissance (Cane).

Mao Tse-tung, founding father of the People’s Republic of China.

Pearl S. Buck, American novelist (The Good Earth).

Henry Miller, American writer.

T.S. Eliot, poet, critic, and dramatist whose work includes The Waste Land and Murder in the Cathedral.

Barnes Wallis, British aeronautical engineer who invented the “Bouncing Bombs” used to destroy German dams during World War II.

William Gladstone is replaced by Lord Salisbury as Prime Minister of England.

Eastman Film Co. manufactures the first commercial motion picture film.

The Indonesian island of Krakatoa erupts in the largest explosion recorded in history, heard 2,200 miles away in Madagascar. The resulting destruction sends volcanic ash up 50 miles into the atmosphere and kills almost 36,000 people–both on the island itself and from the resulting 131-foot tidal waves that obliterate 163 villages on the shores of nearby Java and Sumatra.

Three Earp brothers and Doc Holliday have a shootout with the Clantons and McLaurys at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona Territory.

Duncan Hines, U.S. restaurant guide author

Leon Trotsky, a leader of the Bolshevik Revolution.

Rudolph Dirks, cartoonist, creator of the “Katzenjammer Kids.”

Willis Haviland Carrier, inventor of the first air conditioning system to control both temperature and humidity.

John Buchan, Lord Tweedsmuir, writer and governor general of Canada, famous for his book The Thirty-Nine Steps.

Lee de Forest, physicist, inventor, considered the father of radio.

France and Prussia sign a preliminary peace treaty at Versailles.

President Andrew Johnson is acquitted of all charges of impeachment.

Brig. Gen. Philip St. George Cooke, head of the Department of the Platte, receives word of the Fetterman Fight in Powder River County in the Dakota territory.

The last Confederate army surrenders in Shreveport, Louisiana.

General Nathan Bedford Forrest and his men assault a Federal garrison near Pulaski, Tennessee.

The first National Thanksgiving is celebrated.

38 Santee Sioux are hanged in Mankato, Minnesota for their part in the Sioux Uprising in Minnesota. Little Crow has fled the state.

Louisiana secedes from the Union.

A.E. Houseman, poet (A Shropshire Lad).

George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright (Pygmalion, Heartbreak House, Major Barbara).

Charles William Post, food manufacturer, creator of “Grape Nuts” and “Post Toasties.”

Edward Bellamy, writer (Looking Backward).

The French army suppresses the Paris uprising.

Liberia becomes the first African colony to become an independent state.

William Frederick Cody, aka “Buffalo Bill”.

Julia Gardiner and President John Tyler are married in New York City.

Edward Porter Alexander, artillery general during the American Civil War.

Famed western artist George Catlin begins his voyage up the Missouri River aboard the American Fur Company steamship Yellowstone.

The Russians defeat the Poles at the Battle of Ostroleka.

King Charles X of France issues five ordinances limiting the political and civil rights of citizens.

Scotland Yard, the official British criminal investigation organization, is formed.

Ellen Gould White, founder of the Seventh Day Adventists.

The Persian cavalry is routed by the Russians at the Battle of Ganja in the Russian Caucasus.

The Kappa Alpha Society, the second American college Greek-letter fraternity, is founded.

Frederick Law Olmsted, landscape architect, designed New York’s central park.

The legendary frontiersman Daniel Boone dies quietly at the Defiance, Mo., home of his son Nathan, at age 85.

Abner Doubleday, Civil War general.

Napoleon and 1,200 of his men leave Elba to start the 100-day re-conquest of France.

Napoleon Bonaparte’s army begins crossing the Beresina River over two hastily constructed bridges.

Napoleon’s army is checked by the Russians at the Battle of Pultusk.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition reaches the mouth of the Kansas River after completing a westward trek of nearly 400 river miles.

Victor Hugo, French novelist and poet (Les Misérables).

Count Helmuth Karl Von Moltke, a Prussian Field Marshal, whose reorganization of the Prussian Army lead to military victories which allowed the unification of Germany.

Napoleon Bonaparte captures Jaffa, Palestine.

George Catlin, American artist and author.

When General Paul Barras resigns his commission as head of France’s Army of the Interior to become head of the Directory, his second-in-command becomes the army’s commander—Napoleon Bonaparte.

The French defeat an Austrian army at the Battle of Fleurus, France.

Charles Babbage, English mathematician who perfected the calculating machine.

An attempt at a counter-revolution in France is put down by the National Guard at Lyons.

George Washington proclaims this a National Thanksgiving Day in honor of the new Constitution. This date was later used to set the date for Thanksgiving.

A fleet of ships carrying convicts from England lands at Sydney Cove in Australia. The day is since known as Australia’s national day.

Daniel Shay leads a rebellion in Massachusetts to protest the seizure of property for the non-payment of debt.

John James Audubon, artist and naturalist.

Jane Taylor, children’s writer best known as the author of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

The British army launches a major offensive, capturing Philadelphia.

After crossing the Delaware River into New Jersey, George Washington leads an attack on Hessian mercenaries at Trenton, and takes 900 men prisoner.

The Continental Congress establishes a postal system for the colonies with Benjamin Franklin as the first postmaster general.

A congress of colonial leaders criticizes British influence in the colonies and affirms their right to “Life, liberty and property.”

The French relinquish Fort Ticonderoga in New York to the British under General Jeffrey Amherst.

British forces capture France’s Fortress of Louisbourg after a seven-week siege.

Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry who defined the role of oxygen and named it.

Arthur Middleton, signer of the Declaration of Independence.

British and Chickasaw forces defeat the French at the Battle of Ackia.

Guilio Alberoni is ordered out of Spain after his abortive attempt to restore his country’s empire.

Esek Hopkins, first commodore of the United States Navy.

Thomas Gray, English poet.

Claude Helvétius, French philosopher.

The Treaty of Karlowitz ends the war between Austria and the Turks.

Jacob Leisler, leader of the popular uprising in support of William and Mary’s succession to the throne, is executed for treason.

Louis XIV declares war on the Netherlands.

Charles II and Louis XIV sign a secret treaty in Dover, England, ending hostilities between England and France.

Abraham De Moivre, mathematician.

A new law bans Catholic priests from the colony of Massachusetts. The penalty is banishment or death for a second offense.

The British establish a colony at Cape Henry, Virginia.

Sir Francis Drake returns to Plymouth, England, aboard the Golden Hind, after a 33-month voyage to circumnavigate the globe.

William Shakespeare is baptized.

Former followers murder Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish Conqueror of Peru.

Francisco Pizarro receives a royal warrant to “discover and conquer” Peru.

Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon and colonists leave Santo Domingo for Florida.

The famous Flemish composer Heinrich Issac dies.

Copernicus makes his first observations of Saturn.

Pazzi conspirators attack Lorenzo and kill Giuliano de’ Medici.

Joan of Arc makes a triumphant entry into Paris.

William of Ockham is forced to flee from Avignon by Pope John XXII.

The Seljuk Turkish army in Asia Minor is wiped out by the Mongols.

William the Bad succeeds his father, Roger the II, in Sicily.

Peter the Hermit‘s crusaders force their way across Sava, Hungary.

Turks defeat the Byzantine army under Emperor Romanus IV at Manzikert, Eastern Turkey.

Stephen II ends his reign as Catholic Pope.

Mu’awiya defeats Caliph Ali in the Battle of Siffin in Mesopotamia.

On the death of Jovian, a conference at Nicaea chooses Valentinan, an army officer who was born in the central European region of Pannania, to succeed him in Asia Minor.

Roman Emperor Julian dies, ending the Pagan Revival.

Germanicus of Rome celebrates his victory over the Germans.