Today in History

Author William S. Burroughs (Naked Lunch), considered the godfather of the “Beat Generation” in American literature, dies at age 83.

Iraqi forces invade neighboring Kuwait.

Newsman Morley Safer films the destruction of a Vietnamese village by U.S. Marines.

U.S. destroyer Maddox is reportedly attacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats.

The U.S. First Provisional Marine Brigade arrives in Korea from the United States.

James Fallows, writer and editor of U.S. News and World Report.

Lt. John F. Kennedy, towing an injured sailor, swims to a small island in the Solomon Islands. The night before, his boat, PT-109, had been split in half by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri.

Isabel Allende, author of The House of the Spirits.

German President Paul von Hindenburg dies and Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor.

Peter O’Toole, Irish actor.

James Baldwin, writer whose works include Go Tell It on the Mountain and Notes of a Native Son.

Vice President Calvin Coolidge becomes president upon the death of Warren G. Harding.

A British force lands in Archangel, Russia, to support White Russian opposition to the Bolsheviks.

Germany invades Luxembourg.

Wild Bill Hickok is shot while playing poker.

Irving Babbitt, scholar and founder of the modern humanistic movement.

The Army Ambulance Corps is established by Maj. Gen. George McClellan.

William A. Leidesdorff launches the first steam boat in San Francisco Bay.

Troops under General Henry Atkinson massacre Sauk Indian men, women and children who are followers of Black Hawk at the Bad Axe River in Wisconsin. Black Hawk himself finally surrenders three weeks later, bringing the Black Hawk War to an end.

John Tyndall, British physicist and the first scientist to show why the sky is blue.

The first parachute jump from a balloon is made by Charles Guille in New York City.

Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed “Consul for Life” by the French Senate after a plebiscite from the French people.

The first US census begins enumerating the population.

The Continental Congress, having decided unanimously to make the Declaration of Independence, affixes the signatures of the other delegates to the document.

Pierre Charles L’Enfant, French engineer who designed the layout of Washington, D.C.

During France’s religious war, a fanatical monk stabs King Henry II to death.

An invading French army is destroyed at the Battle of Marciano in Italy by an imperial army.

The treaty of Passau gives religious freedom to Protestants living in Germany.

Hannibal Barca wins his greatest victory over the Romans at Cannae. After avidly studying the tactics of Hannibal, Scipio Africanus eventually bested his Carthaginian adversary.

Caesar defeats Pharnaces at Zela in Syria and declares, “veni, vidi, vici,” (I came, I saw, I conquered).