Today in History

The British Army’s longest continual operation, Operation Banner (1969-2007), ends as British troops withdraw from Northern Ireland.

Edvard Munch’s famed painting The Scream recovered by Norwegian police. The artwork had been stolen on Aug. 22, 2004.

Infanta Leonor of Spain, second in line of succession to the Spanish throne.

Former Enron Corp. CEO Andrew Fastow convicted on 78 counts of conspiracy, money laundering, obstruction of justice and wire fraud; the Enron collapse cost investors millions and led to new oversight legislation.

Soyuz TM-31 launches, carrying the first resident crew to the International Space Station.

EgyptAir Flight 990 crashes into Atlantic Ocean killing all 217 people on board.

Iraq announces it will no longer cooperate with United Nations weapons inspectors.

New York Yankees retire Don Mattingly’s #23 (first baseman, coach, manager).

The Irish Republican Army (IRA) announces a “complete cessation of military operations,” opening the way to a political settlement in Ireland for the first time in a quarter of a century.

The US and the USSR sign a long-range nuclear weapons reduction pact.

Ken Griffey and Ken Griffey Jr. become first father and son to play on same team simultaneously in professional baseball (Seattle Mariners).

Bridge collapse at Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal in Butterworth, Malaysia, kills 32 and injures more than 1,600.

Longest mine strike in South Africa’s history ends, after 11 people were killed, 500 injured and 400 arrested.

A Russian cargo ship collides with cruise ship Admiral Nakhimov, killing 398.

Police capture Richard Ramirez, dubbed the “Night Stalker” for a string of gruesome murders that stretched from Mission Viejo to San Francisco, Cal.

Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated in New Delhi by two Sikh members of her bodyguard.

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

Polish government forced to sign Gdansk Agreement allowing creation of the trade union Solidarity.

Zimbabwe proclaims its independence.

Cambodia breaks relations with Vietnam.

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

Israel and Syria sign an agreement on the Golan Heights.

Saigon begins the release of 1,938 Hanoi POW’s.

Queen Rania of Jordan (nee Rania al Yassin), wife of King Abdullah II.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono record “Give Peace a Chance.”

The bombing of North Vietnam is halted by the United States.

President Lyndon Johnson signs the Consular Treaty, the first bi-lateral pact with the Soviet Union since the Bolshevik Revolution.

An estimated 200,000 anti-war demonstrators march in New York City.

California becomes the largest state in population.

Federation of Malaysia formally proposed.

Larry Mullen Jr., musician; drummer for U2 band.

The South African government declares a state of emergency after demonstrations lead to the deaths of more than 50 Africans.

The Supreme Court orders that states must end racial segregation “with all deliberate speed.”

The siege of Dien Bien Phu, the last French outpost in Vietnam, begins after the Viet Minh realize it cannot be taken by direct assault.

The United States explodes the first hydrogen bomb at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific.

The 1st Marine Division begins its attack on Bloody Ridge in Korea. The four-day battle results in 2,700 Marine casualties.

Antonio Taguba, retired US Army major general best known for authoring the Taguba Report on abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq; Taguba is the second American citizen of Philippine birth to reach the rank of general in the US Army.

Richard Gere, actor (Pretty Woman, An Officer and a Gentleman).

Lowell Ganz, screenwriter, (A League of Their Own) director, producer, actor.

Itzhak Perlman, violinist.

Hungary declares war on Germany.

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

After five months of battle, Emperor Hirohito allows the Japanese commanders at Guadalcanal to retreat.

General MacArthur reports that U.S. lines in Manila have been pushed back by the Japanese.

Joseph Avenol steps down as Secretary-General of the League of Nations.

Britain and France agree to support Poland if Germany threatens to invade.

Tom Paxton, folk singer, songwriter, musician; received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2009).

Michael Landon, actor (Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie TV series).

Eldridge Cleaver, political activist and author of Soul on Fire.

To relieve rampant unemployment, Congress authorizes the Civilian Conservation Corps .

Adolf Hitler‘s Nationalist Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazis) doubles its strength in legislative elections.

Dan Rather, journalist; anchor of CBS Evening News (1981–2005).

Brewery heir Adolphus Busch is kidnapped.

Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera opens in Berlin.

John Fowles, English novelist (The Collector, The French Lieutenant’s Woman).

Charles Moore, influential post-modern architect.

The Sahara is crossed by an automobile for the first time.

Whitney Young, Jr., civil rights leader and executive director of the National Urban League.

The Communist Labor Party is founded in Chicago, with the motto, “Workers of the world unite!”

Daniel Schorr, journalist.

William H. McNeil, historian (The Rise of the West).

British and German fleets fight in the Battle of Jutland.

The Germans torpedo the British liner Persia without any warning killing 335 passengers.

Octavio Paz, Mexican diplomat and Nobel Prize-winning writer.

The 17th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, providing for direct election of senators, is ratified.

Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize-winning economist.

Helene Dutrieu wins the Femina aviation cup in Etampes. She sets a distance record for women at 158 miles.

John B. Moisant and Arch Hoxsey, two of America’s foremost aviators, die in separate plane crashes.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) holds its first conference.

Simon Wiesenthal, survivor of the Nazi Holocaust who dedicated his life to tracking down former Nazis.

William Shawn, longtime editor of The New Yorker.

Sanford Meisner, influential acting teacher.

The Trans-Siberian railroad connecting the Ural mountains with Russia’s Pacific coast, is completed.

Arthur Godfrey, radio and television personality.

Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Brazilian poet, journalist and short story writer.

Jean Dubuffet, French sculptor and painter.

U.S. troops arrive in Peking to help put down the Boxer Rebellion.

Lynn Riggs, writer, her book Green Grow the Lilacs was adapted by Rodgers and Hammerstein to become Oklahoma.

Norman Vincent Peale, American religious leader.

Ethel Waters, actress and blues singer.

Fred Allen [John Florence Sullivan], American comedian.

Great Britain declares territories in Southern Africa up to the Congo to be within its sphere of influence.

George Catlett Marshall, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army during World War II, Secretary of State under Truman, won Nobel Peace Prize for the Marshall Plan.

Chiang Kai-Shek, Chinese Nationalist.

Dubose Heyward, novelist, poet and dramatist best know for Porgy which was the basis for the opera Porgy and Bess.

Belle and Sam Starr are charged with horse stealing in the Indian territory.

The first electric street lights ever installed by a municipality are turned on in Wabash, Indiana.

New York’s Madison Square Garden opens its doors for the first time.

Jack Johnson, first Africa-American boxer to become the world heavyweight champion.

Former president Andrew Johnson dies at the age of 66.

Maria Montessori, educator and founder of the Montessori schools.

Henri Matisse, French artist.

S.S. Kresge, American businessman.

House of Representatives approves a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery.

Nevada becomes the 36th state.

Union General William Rosecrans‘ army repels two Confederate attacks at the Battle of Murfreesboro (Stone’s River).

Juliette Low, founder of the Girl Scouts.

Sir Dugald Clerk, inventor of the two-stroke motorcycle engine.

The richest year of the gold rush ends with $81.3 million in gold produced.

A mob of about 200 attacks a Mormon camp in Missouri, killing 20 men, women and children.

William Clarke Quantrill, Confederate raider during the American Civil War.

The first monthly installment of The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens is published in London.

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

Walt Whitman, American poet.

George Henry Thomas, Union general during the American Civil War.

George Gordon Meade, Union general who defeated Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg.

Théophile Gautier, French poet, novelist and author of Art for Art’s Sake.

Nikolai V. Gogol, Russian writer (The Inspector General, Dead Souls).

Congress ratifies the purchase of the entire Louisiana area in North America, adding territory to the U.S. which will eventually become 13 more states.

Benoit Fourneyron, inventor of the water turbine.

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

John Keats, poet.

The U.S. Patent Office opens.

The Young Pretender, Charles Edward Stuart dies.

Russia and Turkey sign a treaty by which they promise to take no military action in the Crimea.

Abigail Adams writes to husband John that women are “determined to foment a rebellion” if the new Declaration of Independence fails to guarantee their rights.

George Washington orders recruiting officers to accept free blacks into the army.

Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, drives the French army back to the Rhine River.

The British at Fort William Henry, New York, surrender to Louis Montcalm of France.

Robert Morris, signatory of the Declaration of Independence.

Franz Joseph Haydn, Austrian composer.

Charles Edward Stuart, grandson of James II, known as the Young Pretender and Bonnie Prince Charlie.

English novelist Daniel Defoe is made to stand in the pillory as punishment for offending the government and church with his satire The Shortest Way With Dissenters.

John Harrison, Englishman who invented the chronometer.

The Godiva procession, commemorating Lady Godiva’s legendary ride while naked, becomes part of the Coventry Fair.

Andrew Marvell, English poet and politician.

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.

René Descartes, French philosopher and scientist.

In France, Francis–king since 1515–dies and is succeeded by his son Henry II.

Martin Luther nails his 95 Theses to the door of the church at Wittenberg in Germany. Luther’s theories and writings inaugurate Protestantism, shattering the external structure of the medieval church and at the same time reviving the religious consciousness of Europe.

Manuel I, King of Portugal (1495-1521).

Sigismund is crowned emperor of Rome.

The War of Vespers in Sicily ends with an agreement between Charles of Valois, who invaded the country, and Frederick, the ruler of Sicily.

The great massacre of the French in Sicily The Sicilian Vespers comes to an end.

Arabs capture Thessalonica.