Today in History

A bomb explodes in a West Berlin disco packed with American soldiers.

Winston Churchill resigns as British prime minister.

Americans Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are sentenced to death for espionage.

The British 8th Army attacks the next blocking position of the retreating Axis forces at Wadi Akarit.

German commandos secure docks along the Danube River in preparation for Germany’s invasion of the Balkans.

Colin Powell, U.S. Army general, Secretary of State.

Mahatma Gandhi defies British law by making salt in India instead of buying it from the British.

Nguyen Van Thieu, president of South Vietnam.

Arthur Hailey, novelist (Hotel, Airport).

Eamon de Valera becomes president of Ireland.

Robert Bloch, novelist (Psycho).

Gregory Peck, film actor (To Kill a Mockingbird).

Bette Davis, film actress (Jezebel, All About Eve).

Spencer Tracy, actor (Adam’s Rib, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner).

As the Confederate army approaches Appomattox, it skirmishes with Union forces at Amelia Springs and Paine’s Cross Road.

Gideon Welles, the Secretary of the Navy issues official orders for the USS Powhatan to sail to Fort Sumter.

Washington Atlee Burpee, founder of the world’s largest mail-order seed company.

Booker T. Washington, former slave, educator, founded the Tuskegee Institute.

Queen Victoria proclaims Hong Kong a British crown colony.

Robert Smalls, black congressman from South Carolina, 1875-87.

Joseph Lister, English physician, founded the idea of using antiseptics during surgery.

George Washington casts the first presidential veto.

Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe.

Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher (Leviathan).

Russian troops repel an invasion by Teutonic knights.