Today in History

In the Libyan civil war, rebels capture deposed dictator Muammar Gaddafi in his hometown of Sirte, killing him soon afterward.

Dow Jones Industrial Average sinks to lowest level in 11 years in response to failures in the US financial system.

Queen Elizabeth II becomes the oldest monarch in the history of the UK; previously, that honor belonged to Queen Victoria.

A group of Iraqis opposed to the regime of Saddam Hussein seize the Iraqi Embassy in Berlin; after five hours they release their hostages and surrender.

US Pres. George W. Bush, addressing a joint session of Congress, declares a “war on terror.”.

British MI6 Secret intelligence Service building in London attacked by unidentified group using RPG-22 anti-tank missile.

NATO declares an official end to its bombing campaign of Yugoslavia.

First module of the International Space Station, Zarya, is launched.

NeXT merges with Apple Computer, leading to the development of groundbreaking Mac OS X.

NATO begins peacekeeping operation in Bosnia.

Miracle, the Sacred White Buffalo, born on Heider Farm near Janesville, Wisc. The first white (not albino) buffalo born since 1933, she was a important religious symbol for many US and Canadian Indian tribes.

Secret negotiations in Norway lead to agreement on the Oslo Peace Accords, an attempt to resolve the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Fire in England’s Windsor Castle causes over £50 million in damages.

Oakland Hills firestorm destroys nearly 3,500 homes and apartments and kills 25 people.

South Ossetia declares its independence from Georgia in the former Soviet Union.

U.S. troops invade Panama to oust General Manuel Noriega and replace him with Guillermo Endara.

The United State approves AZT, a drug that is proven to slow the progress of AIDS.

Part-time mail carrier Patrick Sherrill shoots 20 fellow workers killing 14 at Edmond Okla., the first mass shooting by an individual in an office environment in the US. His actions give rise to the phrase “going postal,” for sudden violent outbursts.

Australia introduces a capital gains tax.

Suicide car bomber attacks US embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 22.

A multinational force including 800 US Marines lands in Beirut, Lebanon, to oversee Palestinian withdrawal during the Lebanese Civil War.

Microsoft Windows 1.0 released.

UN Security Council condemns Israel’s declaration that all of Jerusalem is its capital; vote is 14-0, with US abstaining.

The Penmanshiel Diversion on the  the East Coast Main Line rail route between England and Scotland opens, replacing the 134-year-old Penmanshiel Tunnel that had collapsed in March.

South Africa backs down on a plan to install black rule in neighboring Namibia.

Charter plane crashes in Mississippi, killing three members of popular Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, along with their assistant road manager, the pilot and co-pilot.

Adam Powell, Welsh game designer; co-founder of Neopets and Meteor Games companies.

Dierks Bentley, country singer, songwriter (“What Was I Thinkin'”, “Every Mile a Memory”).

The United States files an antitrust suit to break up ATT.

Arab oil-producing nations ban oil exports to the United States, following the outbreak of Arab-Israeli war.

President Richard Nixon names General Creighton Abrams as Chief of Staff of the United States Army.

The United States announces it will give Turkey $35 million for farmers who agree to stop growing opium poppies.

100,000 people march in New York, supporting U.S. policies in Vietnam.

Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin become the first men to walk on the moon.

Jacqueline Kennedy marries Aristotle Onassis.

U.S. census reports the population at 200 million.

President Lyndon B. Johnson orders 4,000 troops to protect the Selma-Montgomery civil rights marchers.

US President Lyndon Baines Johnson signs the Economic Opportunity Act, an anti-poverty measure totaling nearly $1 billion, as part of his War on Poverty.

Infanta Elena, Duchess of Lugo, elder daughter of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain; fourth in line of succession to the Spanish throne.

In its first free election in 38 years, the Dominican Republic chooses leftist Juan Bosch Gavino as president.

East Germany begins erecting a wall along western border to replace barbed wire put up Aug 13; US 1st Battle Group, 18th Infantry Division arrives in West Berlin.

National Liberation Front is formed by guerrillas fighting the Diem regime in South Vietnam.

The FCC applies the equal time rule to TV newscasts of political candidates.

Patricia Rozema, film director, screenwriter (Mansfield Park).

Shelton ‘Spike’ Lee, film director (Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X).

The Maryland National Guard is ordered desegregated.

Al Roker, weatherman (Today on NBC; Weather Channel).

USSR publicly acknowledges it tested a hydrogen bomb eight days earlier.

Scientists confirm that DNA holds hereditary data.

King Abdullah of Jordan is assassinated.

U.S. troops push to the Yalu River, within five miles of Manchuria.

Alan Parsons, musician (The Alan Parsons Project); producer who was involved with The Beatles’ Abbey Road and Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon.

Princess Elizabeth (future Queen Elizabeth II) marries Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in Westminster Abbey.

Dick Wolf, television producer (Miami Vice, Law & Order).

The Nazi war crime trials begin at Nuremberg.

U.S. troops land on Leyte in the Philippines, keeping General MacArthur’s pledge “I shall return.”

Soviet forces halt a German army trying to relieve the besieged city of Stalingrad.

Joe Biden, politician; US Senator from Delaware (1973–2009); President Barack Obama’s vice-president, beginning in 2009

The Flying Tigers, American pilots in China, enter combat against the Japanese over Kunming.

Robert Pinsky, former U.S. Poet Laureate.

Dick Smothers, actor, singer; half of the Smothers Brothers whose controversial comedy-variety TV show challenged censorship boundaries in the 1960s, finally resulting in cancellation in 1969.

First electronic television system is patented.

Don DeLillo, author (White Noise, Libra).

Belgium arrests some Nazi agitators who urge for a return to the Reich.

Sofia Loren (Sofia Scicolone), first actress to win the Academy Award for Best Actress for a performance in a non-English language film (Two Women); received Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievements (1995).

The German government announces 400,000 citizens are to be sterilized because of hereditary defects.

Michael McClure, beat poet.

Japan and China reject the League of Council terms for Manchuria at Geneva.

Thousands of Spaniards sign a revolutionary manifesto.

Mrs. Glen Hyde becomes the first woman to dare the Grand Canyon rapids in a scow (a flat-bottomed boat that is pushed along with a pole).

Charles Lindbergh takes off from New York for Paris.

Robert F. Kennedy, U.S. Attorney General, New York senator and brother of President John F. Kennedy. He was assassinated while running for president.

Adolf Hitler is released from prison after serving less than one year of a five year sentence for treason.

Nadine Gordimer, Nobel Prize-winning South African novelist.

Raymond Walter Goulding, Radio comedian of Bob and Ray fame.

George Roy Hill, film director (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting).

Jay Ward, creator and producer of animated TV cartoons (Rocky & His Friends, renamed The Bullwinkle Show; George of the Jungle).

Edmund Hillary, New Zealand explorer.

The Bolsheviks of the Soviet Union ask for American aid to rebuild their army.

Arnold “Red” Auerbach, second most wins basketball coach in history with 1,037 victories for the Boston Celtics.

Thomas McGrath, poet and novelist.

The French call off the Champagne offensive on the Western Front.

Harry F. Byrd Jr., first independent ever elected to US Senate by a majority of the popular vote (Virginia).

700 feet above Buc, France, parachutist Adolphe Pegoud becomes the first person to jump from an airplane and land safely.

Josephine Johnson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author (Jordanstown, Wildwood).

Errol Flynn, film actor (The Adventures of Robin Hood, Captain Blood).

Alistair Cooke, English journalist, television host.

Lillian Hellman, playwright (The Little Foxes, Toys in the Attic).

Army officers in Russia mutiny at Sevastopol.

Jack Teagarden, jazz trombonist.

Virgil “Spud” Davis, pro baseball catcher, coach, scout and manager.

In Cheyenne, Wyoming, 42-year-old hired gunman Tom Horn is hanged for the murder of 14-year-old Willie Nickell.

The U.S. military occupation of Cuba ends.

Robert J. Van de Graff, physicist, invented the Van de Graaff generator.

J.F. Pickering patents his airship.

Jean Moulin, French Resistance fighter during World War II.

On the way to the Philippines to fight the Spanish, the U.S. Navy seizes the island of Guam.

George Burns, comedian and actor in vaudeville, radio, television and film.

Curt Richter, biologist.

Joan Miró, Spanish painter.

Sir James Chadwick, physicist who won the Nobel Prize for discovering the neutron.

H.P. Lovecraft, author of horror tales; created the Cthulhu mythos.

Edwin Hubble, American astronomer who proved that there are other galaxies far from our own.

Marie Rambert, ballet dancer and director.

Kurt Schwitters, German artist.

Paul Tillich, theologian and philosopher who wrote Systematic Theology.

Ferdinand La Menthe (Jelly Roll Morton), jazz pianist, composer and singer, one of the first to orchestrate jazz music.

Bela Lugosi, Hungarian-born film actor famous for his portrayal of Count Dracula (1931).

Sigrid Undset, Norwegian novelist (Kristin Lavransdatter).

Branch Rickey, president of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The first mobile home (horse-drawn) is used in a journey from London to Cyprus.

Upton Sinclair, author best known today for The Jungle.

Charles Ives, composer.

The Summer Palace in Beijing, China, is burnt to the ground by a Franco-British expeditionary force.

Harvey Firestone, industrialist and tire maker.

Imperial troops in Guizhou, China, kill 20,000 Miao rebels.

Confederate General John Bell Hood attacks Union forces under General William T. Sherman outside Atlanta.

Union troops under George Thomas prevent the Union defeat at Chickamauga from becoming a rout, earning him the nickname “the Rock of Chickamauga.”

President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act, providing 250 million acres of free land to settlers in the West.

English transports loaded with 8,000 troops set sail for Canada so that troops are available if the “Trent Affair” is not settled without war.

South Carolina secedes from the Union.

A force of Austrians collide with Piedmontese cavalry at the village of Montebello, in northern Italy.

Selma Lagerdorf, Swedish novelist (The Story of Gosta Berling).

Arthur Rimbaud, poet.

The Allies defeat the Russians at the Battle of Alma on the Crimean Peninsula.

Harriet Beecher Stowe‘s Uncle Tom’s Cabin is published.

The slave trade is abolished in the District of Columbia.

General Winfield Scott wins the Battle of Churubusco on his drive to Mexico City.

Ludwig Boltzmann, atomic physics engineer

Lord James Dewar, physician who invented the vacuum flask and cordite, the first smokeless powder.

Edgar Allen Poe’s first detective story is published.

18-year-old Victoria is crowned Queen of England.

The Territory of Wisconsin is created.

Petroleum V. Nasby (David Ross Locke), humorist whose work was enjoyed by Abraham Lincoln.

Polish revolutionaries defeat the Russians in the Battle of Grochow.

The National Negro Convention convenes in Philadelphia with the purpose of abolishing slavery.

Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian dramatist (Peer Gynt, Hedda Gabler).

Anne Clough, promoter of higher education.

The paddle-wheel steamship Savannah arrives in Liverpool, England, after a voyage of 27 days and 11 hours–the first steamship to successfully cross the Atlantic.

The United States and Britain establish the 49th Parallel as the boundary between Canada and the United States.

Napoleon Bonaparte enters Paris and begins his 100-day rule.

Napoleon II, son of Napoleon Bonaparte, Duke of Reichstadt.

Napoleon Bonaparte defeats Austria at Battle of Abensberg, Bavaria.

Louis-Napoleon (Napoleon III), emperor of France.

Aloysius Bertrand (“Gaspard de la Nuit”), French poet.

Explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark pass the French village of La Charette, the first white settlement they have seen in more than two years.

Austrian general Karl Mac surrenders to Napoleon’s army at the battle of Ulm.

The United States buys the Louisiana territory from France.

Honore de Balzac, French novelist (The Human Comedy, Lost Illusions).

American General “Mad Anthony” Wayne defeats the Ohio Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in the Northwest territory, ending Indian resistance in the area.

Eli Whitney applies for a cotton gin patent.

France declares war on Austria, Prussia, and Sardinia.

Packet and Daily, the first daily publication in America, appears on the streets.

Britain signs a peace agreement with France and Spain, who allied against it in the American War of Independence.

North Carolina becomes the first colony to declare its independence.

Parliament passes the Coercive Acts to punish the colonists for their increasingly anti-British behavior. The acts close the port of Boston.

Captain Cook discovers Australia.

Ottawa Chief Pontiac is murdered by an Indian in Cahokia.

Dolley Madison, first lady of President James Madison.

The Great Fire of Boston destroys 349 buildings.

Nearly 150 British soldiers are imprisoned in the ‘Black Hole’ cell of Calcutta. Most die.

Stephen Girard, American financier and philanthropist.

Philippe Pinel, founder of psychiatry.

Danish navigator Vitus Jonas Bering, commissioned by Peter the Great of Russia to find land connecting Asia and North America, discovers America.

In India, Nadir Shah of Persia occupies Delhi and takes possession of the Peacock throne.

Richard Henry Lee, American Revolutionary patriot and signatory of the Declaration of Independence.

William Prescott, U.S. Revolutionary War hero at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

New Hampshire militiamen partake in the first recorded scalping of Indians by whites in North America.

Adam Ferguson, Scottish historian and philosopher (Principals of Moral and Political Science).

The Riot Act goes into effect in England.

George I of England crowned.

Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy take Mons in the Netherlands.

Sweden’s 17-year-old King Charles XII defeats the Russians at Narva.

Zumbi dos Palmares, the Brazilian leader of a 100-year-old rebel slave group, is killed in an ambush.

England passes the Act of Grace, forgiving followers of James II.

John Sobieski becomes Poland’s first king.

John Milton publishes Paradise Lost, an epic poem about the fall of Adam and Eve.

William Bradford, printer.

English Admiral Robert Blake fights his last battle when he destroys the Spanish fleet in Santa Cruz Bay.

Sir Christopher Wren, astronomer and architect.

The first group of twenty Africans is brought to Jamestown, Virginia.

The French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrives to winter in a Huron Indian village after being wounded in a battle with Iroquois in New France.

After a two-year siege, the Spanish retake Ostend, the Netherlands, from the Dutch.

Anne Hutchinson, religious liberal, one of the founders of Rhode Island.

The Spanish Armada sets sail from Corunna.

In France, Huguenot Henri de Navarre routs Duke de Joyeuse’s larger Catholic force at Coutras.

Pedro Menendez of Spain wipes out the French at Fort Caroline, in Florida.

Queen Elizabeth of England signs a treaty at Hampton Court with French Huguenot leader Louis de Bourbon, the Prince of Conde. The English will occupy Le Havre in return for aiding Bourbon against the Catholics of France.

Hernando Cortes defeats Spanish troops sent against him in Mexico.

Ferdinand Magellan embarks from Spain on a voyage to circumnavigate the world.

Pope Julius II dies. He will lay in rest in a huge tomb sculptured by Michelangelo.

Henry IV of England is succeed by his son Henry V.

Tamerlane’s Mongols defeat the Ottoman Turks at Angora.

The Union of Kalmar unites Denmark, Sweden, and Norway under one monarch.

The election of Robert of Geneva as anti-pope by discontented cardinals creates a great schism in the Catholic church.

Stephen Urosh IV of Serbia dies while marching to attack Constantinople.

Cola di Rienzo takes the title of tribune in Rome.

Edward II of England is deposed by his eldest son, Edward III.

Francisco Petrarch, Italian poet and scholar.

A peace treaty is signed between England and France.

The Second Lateran Council opens in Rome.

A Byzantine counter-offensive is routed by Syeon at Anchialus, Bulgaria.

Greeks defeat the Persians in a naval battle at Salamis.

Roman and barbarian warriors halt Attila‘s army at the Catalaunian Plains in eastern France.

The Ecumenical council is inaugurated by Emperor Constantine in Nicea.

Diocletian is proclaimed emperor of Numerian in Asia Minor by his soldiers. He had been the commander of the emperor’s bodyguard.

Marcus Aurelius, 16th Roman emperor, philosopher.

Vespians’s supporters enter Rome and discover Vitellius in hiding. He is dragged through the streets before being brutally murdered.

Ovid, Roman poet.