Today in History

Park Geun-hye elected President of South Korea, the nation’s first female chief executive.

New Zealand suffers its worst mining disaster since 1914 when the first of four explosions occurs at the Pike River Mine; 29 people are killed.

Military coup in Bangkok, revokes Thailand’s constitution and establishes martial law.

Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s trail for crimes against humanity begins in Baghdad.

Google Inc. stock begins selling on the Nasdaq Stock Market, with an initial price of $85; the stock ended the day at $100.34 with more than 22 million shares traded.

Mother Teresa is beatified by Pope John Paul II for her work among “the poorest of the poor” in India.

A Russian Mi-26 helicopter carrying troops is hit by a Chechen missile outside of Grozny, killing 118 soldiers.

Rioting begins in Buenos Aires, Argentina, during the country’s economic crisis.

President Bill Clinton is impeached. The House of Representatives approved two articles of impeachment against President Clinton, charging him with lying under oath to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice. Clinton was the second president in American history to be impeached.

Canada’s Lt. Gen. Maurice Baril arrives in Africa to lead a multinational force policing Zaire.

The Richmond Virginia Planning Commission approves plans to place a memorial statue of tennis professional Arthur Ashe.

The FBI ends a 51-day siege by storming the Branch Davidian religious cult headquarters in Waco, Texas.

German hikers near the Austria-Italy border discover the naturally preserved mummy of a man from about 3,300 BC; Europe’s oldest natural human mummy, he is dubbed Otzi the Iceman because his lower half was encased in ice.

Pop duo Milli Vanilli are stripped of their Grammy Award after it is learned they did not sing on their award-winning Girl You Know Its True album.

The 1975 conviction of the Guilford Four overturned by British courts; the 4 men had been convicted in the 1974 Guilford pub bombings.

British government bans TV and radio interviews with members of Irish political group Sinn Fein and 11 paramilitary groups.

In retaliation for Iranian attacks on ships in the Persian Gulf, the U. S. navy disables three of Iran’s offshore oil platforms.

In the largest civil verdict in US history, Pennzoil wins $10.53 billion judgement against Texaco.

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang sign an agreement that committed Britain to return Hong Kong to China in 1997 in return for terms guaranteeing a 50-year extension of its capitalist system. Hong Kong was leased by China to Great Britain in 1898 for 99 years.

The New Catholic code expands women’s rights in the Church.

Four bombs explode at South Africa’s only nuclear power station in Johannesburg.

U.S. Steel agrees to pay $6.3 million for Marathon Oil.

Alex Haley receives a special Pulitzer Prize for his book Roots.

Jack Dorsey, businessman; co-founder of Twitter.

Apollo and Soyuz spacecrafts dock in orbit.

Nelson Rockefeller is sworn in as vice president of the United states after a House of Representatives vote.

New York stock market takes sharpest drop in 19 years.

Russia launches its first Salyut space station.

First Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts (originally called the Pilton Festival) is held near Pliton, Somerset, England.

Apollo 12 touches down on the moon.

Over 50,000 people march on Washington, D.C. to support the Poor People’s Campaign.

Amy Carter, daughter of American president (1977-81) Jimmy Carter, she engaged in social activism in the 1980s.

Gail Devers, three-time Olympic champion in track and field (US team); won gold in 1992 (100 m) and two gold medals in 1996 (100 m, 4x100m relay).

US forces destroy a Viet Cong stronghold near Van Tuong, in South Vietnam.

Trisha Yearwood, Grammy and Country Music Association award-winning singer-songwriter (“How Do I Live”), actress (JAG TV series recurring role).

Prince Laurent of Belgium.

Jodie Foster, actress, director, producer; came to fame at age 13 in the 1976 film Taxi Driver; won Academy Award for Best Actress (1989) for The Accused.

Kuwait regains complete independence from Britain.

Canada and the United States agree to undertake a joint Columbia River project to provide hydroelectric power and flood control.

Reputed to be the last civil war veteran, Walter Williams, dies at 117 in Houston.

Nine entertainers refuse to answer a congressional committee’s questions on communism.

First underground nuclear test takes place in Nevada.

Ann Curry, journalist; co-anchor of Today, June 9, 2011–June 28, 2012; anchor of Dateline NBC 2005–2011.

Argentina’s President Juan Peron is overthrown by rebels.

General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, commander in chief of Egypt’s armed forces and minister of defense (2012– ); played leading role in July 2013 coup ousting President Mohamed Morsi.

Scandinavian Airlines opens a commercial route from Canada to Europe.

President Harry S. Truman signs the Universal Military Training and Service Act, which extends Selective Service until July 1, 1955 and lowers the draft age to 18.

The North Atlantic Council names General Dwight D. Eisenhower as supreme commander of Western European defense forces.

Prince Ranier III is crowned 30th Monarch of Monaco.

Patrick Simmons, guitarist and vocalist for The Doobie Brothers band.

Tanith Lee, author, screenwriter; first woman to win British Fantasy best novel award (Death’s Master, 1980).

Congress confirms Eleanor Roosevelt as U.S. delegate to the United Nations.

During the Battle of the Bulge, American troops begin pulling back from the twin Belgian cities of Krinkelt and Rocherath in front of the advancing German Army.

US Marine Corps four-star general James L. Jones Jr.; Supreme Allied Commander in Europe (2003–2006); Commandant of the Marine Corps (1999–2003); National Security Advisor (2009–2010).

The British advance 40 miles into Burma in a drive to oust the Japanese from the colony.

Maurice White, singer, songwriter, musician, producer; founder of the band Earth, Wind & Fire; member of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Songwriters Hall of Fame and Vocal Group Hall of Fame.

Phil Ochs, singer, songwriter, producer; best known for his protest songs of the 1960s.

Connecticut finally approves the Bill of Rights.

Ted Turner, businessman; founder of Turner Broadcasting System.

Peter Max, illustrator and graphic artist whose use of psychedelic shapes and bright colors made him popular in the 1960s.

Dick Cavett, host of TV talk shows The Tonight Show and The Dick Cavett Show.

The National Football League adopts an annual college draft to begin in 1936.

General Yakubu “Jack” Gowon, leader of Nigeria 1966-75; his government prevented Biafran secession during the Nigerian Civil War (1967-70).

Cicely Tyson, actress, best remembered for her role in The Autobiography of Ms. Jane Pittman.

Robert Reed, actor; best known for his role as Mike Brady on the ABC sitcom The Brady Bunch, he received Emmy nominations for his appearances in Medical Center, Rich Man, Poor Man, and Roots.

John Le Carré, English suspense and spy novelist.

Bettye Lane, photographer noted for documenting major events of the feminist, civil rights and gay rights movements in the US.

Adam West, actor (Batman in campy Batman TV series).

Helen Carter, singer, member of the pioneering all-female country group Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters.

Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Politburo in the Soviet Union.

Malcolm X (Malcolm Little), African-American activist.

U.S. troops are rushed to Tegucigalpa as rebel forces take the Honduran capital.

The Oklahoma State Senate ousts Governor Walton for anti-Ku Klux Klan measures.

George McGovern, U.S. senator and presidential candidate.

Roy Campanella, Hall of Fame baseball star.

The U.S. Senate rejects the Versailles Treaty for the second time.

Malcolm Forbes, publisher of Forbes magazine.

American troops of the Allied North Russia Expeditionary Force receive their baptism of fire near the town of Seltso against Soviet forces.

Indira Gandhi, prime minister of India from 1967 to 1977 and 1978 to 1984 who was assassinated by her own guards.

The First Aero Squadron takes off from Columbus, NM to join Gen. John J. Pershing and his Punitive Expedition against Pancho Villa in Mexico.

Edith Piaf, internationally famous French cabaret singer, best remembered for her songs “La Vie en rose” and “Non, je ne regrette rein.”

The German cruiser Emden captures her thirteenth Allied merchant ship in 24 days.

Glenn T. Seaborg, physicist.

New York receives first Marconi wireless transmission from Italy.

American socialist women denounce suffrage as a movement of the middle class.

Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet General Secretary of the Communist party and President of the Supreme Soviet from 1964 until 1982.

100 people drown in the English Channel as the steamer Hilda sinks.

Bergen Evans, educator and author who wrote Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage.

Henry Louis Gehrig, professional baseball player.

Ogden Nash, humorist.

The French Parliament votes amnesty for everyone involved in the Dreyfus Affair.

Allen Tate, Southern novelist, poet and critic.

The Great “City Fire” in London.

A.J. Cronin, Scottish novelist (The Citadel, The Keys of the Kingdom).

Lewis Mumford, American writer, urban planner and social critic (The City in History).

Rachel Field, novelist and playwright who wrote All This and Heaven Too and And Now Tomorrow.

New Zealand becomes the first nation to grant women the right to vote.

Earl Warren, governor of California, later 14th Supreme Court Chief Justice.

Ho Chi Minh (Nguyen That Thanh), Vietnamese nationalist and political leader.

Sarah Gertrude Millina, South African writer (The Dark River, God’s Stepchildren).

Bulgarians, led by Stefan Stambolov, repulse a larger Serbian invasion force at Slivinitza.

Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, fashion designer.

The Times war correspondent telephones a report of the Battle of Ahmed Khel, the first time news is sent from a field of battle in this manner.

Lady Nancy Astor (Nancy Witcher Langhorne), the first woman to sit in the British House of Commons.

Ole Evinrude, inventor of the first successful outboard motor.

James Reed and two accomplices rob the Watt Grayson family of $30,000 in the Choctaw Nation.

Orville Wright, aviation pioneer.

Bernard Baruch, U.S. representative to the U.N. Atomic Energy Commission.

Mexican Emperor Maximilian is executed.

Charles Mayo, American surgeon, co-founder of the Mayo Clinic.

At the Battle of Cedar Creek, Va., a narrow victory helps the Union secure the Shenandoah Valley.

Lincoln delivers the “Gettysburg Address” at the dedication of the National Cemetery at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg.

Confederate General Nathan B. Forrest begins tearing up the railroads in Union generals Grant and Rosecrans rear, causing considerable delays in the movement of Union supplies.

Julia Ward Howe writes “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” while visiting Union troops near Washington.

Lizzie Borden, teacher, famous murder suspect.

Svante Arrhenius, Swedish chemist, founder of physical chemistry.

Alice Josephine McLellan Birney, child welfare worker whose ideas evolved into the PTA.

Senator Charles Sumner speaks out against slavery.

Alfred von Tirpitz, Prussian admiral who commanded the German fleet in early World War I.

John “The Pathfinder” Fremont moves out from near Westport, Missouri, on his fourth Western expedition–a failed attempt to open a trail across the Rocky Mountains along the 38th parallel.

Rescuers finally reach the ill-fated Donner Party in the Sierras.

The New York Knickerbocker Club plays the New York Club in the first baseball game at Elysian Field, Hoboken, New Jersey.

The first railway to span a frontier is completed between Strasbourg and Basel, in Europe.

Paul Cézanne, French post-Impressionist painter (Card Players, L’Oeuvre).

Edgar Degas, French impressionist painter.

Adam Lindsay Gordon, Australian poet.

Lucretia Rudolph, President James A. Garfield‘s first lady.

James Garfield, 20th president of the United States.

In Vienna, Composer Franz Schubert dies of syphilis at age 31.

English poet Lord George Gordon Byron dies of malaria at age 36 while aiding Greek independence.

Boston is incorporated as a city.

The Ottomans defeat the Greeks at the Battle of Dragasani.

Mary Ashton Livermore, a temperance worker, women’s rights activist, lecturer, and writer. Founded her own suffrage paper, the Agitator, in 1869.

Tom Taylor, British playwright whose play Our American Cousin was being performed at Ford’s Theater when President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.

Samuel Colt, gunmaker, inventor of the first practical revolver.

David Livingston, explorer found by Henry Stanley in Africa.

Napoleon Bonaparte begins his retreat from Moscow.

Edgar Allan Poe, American author and poet (“Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Raven,” “Annabel Lee.”)

Vice President Aaron Burr is arrested in Alabama for treason. He is later found innocent.

The Spanish reopen New Orleans port to American merchants.

The Rosetta Stone, a tablet with hieroglyphic translations into Greek, is found in Egypt.

Sojourner Truth, abolitionist and women’s rights advocate.

Tadeusz Kosciuszko forces the Russians out of Warsaw.

French troops recapture Toulon from the British.

Charles de Barentin becomes lord chancellor of France.

Leigh Hunt, English journalist, essayist, poet and political radical.

The first hot-air balloon is sent aloft in Versailles, France with animal passengers including a sheep, rooster and a duck.

The Netherlands recognizes the United States.

Major General Lord Charles Cornwallis surrenders to George Washington and Count de Rochambeau at Yorktown, Va. Cornwallis surrenders 7,157 troops, including sick and wounded, and 840 sailors, along with 244 artillery pieces. Losses in this battle had been light on both sides. The Revolutionary War is effectively ended.

Near total darkness descends on New England at noon. No explanation is found.

Americans under Major Henry Lee take the British garrison at Paulus Hook, New Jersey.

General George Washington‘s troops finally leave Valley Forge after a winter of training.

American forces under Gen. Horatio Gates meet British troops led by Gen. John Burgoyne at Saratoga Springs, NY.

The American Revolution begins as fighting breaks out at Lexington, Massachusetts.

Gustavus III of Sweden eliminates the rule of parties and establishes an absolute monarchy.

The English Parliament bans the American colonies from printing paper money.

Johann Gottlieb Fichte, German philosopher.

England declares war on Spain over borderlines in Florida. The War is known as the War of Jenkins’ Ear because the Spanish coast guards cut off the ear of British seaman Robert Jenkins.

James Watt, Scottish inventor.

Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independence.

On the death of William III of Orange, Anne Stuart, sister of Mary, succeeds to the throne of England, Scotland and Ireland.

Philip V of Spain makes his ceremonial entry into Madrid.

Giles Corey is pressed to death for standing mute and refusing to answer charges of witchcraft brought against him. He is the only person in America to have suffered this punishment.

Residents of Boston oust their governor, Edmond Andros.

The French explorer La Salle is murdered by his own men while searching for the mouth of the Mississippi, along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

Philip V, the first Bourbon King of Spain.

Sarah Kemble Knight, diarist.

The French army defeats a Spanish army at Rocroi, France.

Cardinal Richelieu of France intervenes in the great conflict in Europe by declaring war on the Hapsburgs in Spain.

Blaise Pascal, French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher.

The Pilgrims sight Cape Cod.

The Protestant states form the Evangelical Union of Lutherans and Calvinists.

Charles I, King of England and Ireland.

William Bradford, governor of Plymouth colony for 30 years.

The Spanish Armada sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal.

Sigismund III is chosen to be the king of Poland.

Defeated by the Protestants, Mary, Queen of Scots, flees to England where Queen Elizabeth imprisons her.

James I, King of England (1603-1625).

The French Wars of Religion between the Huguenots and the Catholics begins with the Battle of Dreux.

King Henry VIII of England watches his flagship, Mary Rose, capsize as it leaves to battle the French.

Francis, the king of France, and Charles V of Austria sign a peace treaty in Crespy, France, ending a 20-year war.

Emperor Charles V reaches a truce with German Protestants at Frankfurt, Germany.

Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII‘s second wife, is beheaded on Tower Green.

French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail for North America.

The Catholic princes of Germany form the Dessau League to fight against the Reformation.

In Switzerland, Ulrich Zwingli publishes his 67 Articles, the first manifesto of the Zurich Reformation which attacks the authority of the Pope.

Maximilian succeeds his father Frederick III as Holy Roman Emperor.

Nicholas Copernicus, Polish astronomer who introduced the idea that the earth revolved around the sun.

The peace of Torun ends the war between the Teutonic knights and their own disaffected subjects in Prussia.

The Ottoman Sultan Murat II defeats Hungarian General Janos Hunyadi at Kosovo, Serbia.

The revolt of Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, against King Henry IV, ends with his defeat and death at Bramham Moor.

In a landmark battle of the Hundred Years’ War, English Prince Edward defeats the French at Poitiers.

King John of England dies at Newark and is succeeded by his nine-year-old son Henry.

Henry II is crowned king of England.

St. Gregory II begins his reign as Catholic Pope.

The Vandals, led by King Gaiseric, take Carthage in North Africa.

Eratosthenes estimates the circumference of Earth using two sticks.