Today in History

The world’s longest doubles ping-pong match ends after 101 hours.

The U.S. Federal Reserve begins issuing $2 bicentennial notes.

An oxygen tank explodes on Apollo 13, preventing a planned moon landing and jeopardizing the lives of the three-man crew.

Sidney Poitier becomes the first black individual to win an Oscar for best actor.

The U.N. General Assembly condemns South Africa because of apartheid.

The first navigational satellite is launched into Earth’s orbit.

Vienna falls to Soviet troops.

Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates the Jefferson Memorial.

German troops capture Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

Seamus Heaney, Irish poet, Nobel laureate.

The first flight over Mount Everest is completed by Lord Clydesdale.

John Gerard Braine, British novelist (Room at the Top).

British forces kill hundreds of Indian nationalists in the Amritsar Massacre.

Eudora Welty, Southern writer (Delta Wedding, The Optimist’s Daughter).

Samuel Beckett, playwright, Nobel Prize winner (Waiting for Godot).

J.C. Penny opens his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming.

Alfred Butts, inventor of the board game Scrabble.

Butch Cassidy [Robert LeRoy Parker], American outlaw and leader of the Wild Bunch.

Union forces under Gen. Sherman begin their devastating march through Georgia.

After 34 hours of bombardment, Union-held Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederates.

Frank W. Woolworth, American retailer.

Lord North extends the New England Restraining Act to South Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland. The act forbids trade with any country other than Britain and Ireland.

Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States (1801-09)

Frederick Lord North, British prime minister (1770-82).

John Hanson, first U.S. President under the Articles of Confederation.

The Edict of Nantes grants political rights to French Huguenots.