Today in History

The United States transfers control of the Panama Canal Zone to Panama.

The U.S. Army charges Captain Ernest Medina for his role in the My Lai massacre.

The U.S. Army launches Operation Pegasus, the reopening of a land route to the besieged Khe Sanh Marine base.

The U.S. Air Force Academy is founded in Colorado.

United Nations forces again move northward across the 38th Parallel in Korea.

The Berlin Airlift begins, relieving the surrounded city from the Soviet siege.

A miner’s strike in the U.S. idles 400,000 workers.

U.S. forces launch invasion of Okinawa.

The U.S. Navy begins a partial convoy system in the Atlantic.

The Spanish Civil War effectively ends with the official recognition of Franco’s government.

Milan Kundera, Czech writer (The Farewell Party, The Unbearable Lightness of Being).

China’s Chiang Kai-shek begins attacks on communists.

Adolf Hitler sentenced to five years in prison for the “Beer Hall Putsch.”

Germany’s Workers Party changes its name to the Nationalist Socialist German Worker’s Party (Nazis).