Today in History

The U.S. Senate votes overwhelmingly to repeal the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

The Federal Trade Commission announces that, starting in 1965, cigarette makers must include warning labels about the harmful effects of smoking.

Soviet MIGs down a U.S. Navy patrol plane over the Bering Strait.

John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier announce their engagement.

The Soviet Union begins the Berlin Blockade, America responds with the Berlin Airlift.

Royal Air Force Bombers hammer Muelheim, Germany, in a drive to cripple the Ruhr industrial base.

President Franklin Roosevelt pledges all possible support to the Soviet Union.

France signs an armistice with Italy.

The Soviet Union and Afghanistan sign a treaty of neutrality.

Claude Chabrol, French film director (The Cousins, Madame Bovary).

John Ciardi, poet.

Fred Hoyle, British mathematician and astronomer.

Greece and Serbia annul their alliance with Bulgaria following border disputes over Macedonia and Thrace.

Norman Cousins, editor of the Saturday Review.

The Japanese army invades Korea.

Harry Partch, composer.

Booker T. Washington becomes the first African American to receive an honorary MA degree from Harvard University.

Jack Dempsey, American boxer and world heavyweight champion.

Victor Francis Hess, physicist.

U.S. intervention saves the British and French at the Dagu Forts in China.

Federal gunboats attack Confederate batteries at Mathias Point, Virginia.

At the Battle of Solferino, also known as the Battle of the Three Sovereigns, the French army, led by Napoleon III, defeats the Austrian army under Franz Joseph I.

Brooks Adams, American historian, son of Charles Francis Adams (The Law of Civilization and Decay).

Ambrose Bierce, American writer and satirist (The Friend’s Delight, The Devil’s Dictionary).

Henry Ward Beecher, clergyman.

Napoleon crosses the Neman River and invades Russia.

King Philip’s War begins.

The colony of New Jersey, named after the Isle of Jersey, is founded.

Margaret Brent, demands a voice and a vote for herself in the Maryland colonial assembly.

Henry VIII is crowned King of England.

Explorer John Cabot lands in North America in present-day Canada.

The English fleet defeats the French fleet at Sluys, off the Flemish coast.

Scottish forces, led by Robert the Bruce, win an overwhelming victory against English King Edward II at the Battle of Bannockburn.

Carthaginian forces led by Hannibal destroy a Roman army under consul Gaius Flaminius in a battle at Lake Trasimene in central Italy.