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).

Joseph E. Murray, transplant physician.

England’s Royal Air Force is formed.

Berlin and Paris are linked by telephone.

Alberta Hunter, blues singer.

William Manchester, U.S. historian and biographer.

Edmond Rostand, French dramatist (Cyrano de Bergerac).

At the Battle of Five Forks, Gen. Robert E. Lee begins his final offensive.

The first wartime conscription law goes into effect in the United States.

Otto Von Bismarck, chancellor of Germany.

Oliver Pollock, creates the dollar sign.

William Harvey, English physician and biologist.

The Sea Beggars under Guillaume de la Marck land in Holland and capture the small town of Briel.