Today in History

A coup in Sudan ousts President Nimeiry and replaces him with General Dahab.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the president of Pakistan is executed.

Hank Aaron ties Babe Ruth’s home-run record.

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) treaty is signed.

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel captures the British held town of Benghazi in North Africa.

Bart Giamatti, baseball commissioner, president of Yale.

Anthony Perkins, actor (Psycho).

Maya Angelou, American poet and author.

The Battle of the Somme ends.

The U.S. Senate votes 90-6 to enter World War I on Allied side.

Muddy Waters, American blues musician.

Marguerite Duras, French author (The Lover).

Robert Sherwood, playwright.

Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese naval commander during WWII.

The Battle of Yorktown begins as Union gen. George B. McClellan closes in on Richmond, Va.

President William Henry Harrison, aged 68, becomes the first president to die in office, just a month after being sworn in.

Linus Yale, inventor of the Yale lock.

The United States flag is declared to have 13 red and white stripes and 20 stars.

The territory of Orleans becomes the 18th state and will become known as Louisiana.

Dorothea Dix, American social reformer.

Thaddeus Stevens, U.S. Republican congressional leader.

Edward Hicks, Quaker preacher and painter (The Peaceable Kingdom).

Francis Drake completes circumnavigation of the world.

In Constantinople, Justin, seriously ill, crowns his nephew Justinian as his co-emperor.