Today in History

A suicide bomber kills U.S. Marines at the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon.

Zimbabwe’s (Rhodesia) formal independence from Britain is proclaimed.

The U.S. Senate approves the transfer of the Panama Canal to Panama.

Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser seizes power in Egypt.

The first transatlantic jet passenger trip is completed.

The Republic of Ireland withdraws from British Commonwealth.

The League of Nations dissolves.

Traveling in a bomber, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the mastermind of the attack on Pearl Harbor, is shot down by American P-38 fighters.

James H. Doolittle bombs Tokyo and other Japanese cities.

Ed Garvey, labor leader.

Leon Trotsky calls for the overthrow of Soviet leader Josef Stalin.

Yankee Stadium opens with Babe Ruth hitting a three-run homer as the Yankees beat the Red Sox 4-1.

Clifton Keith Hillegass, founder of the study guides known as Cliff’s Notes.

A massive earthquake hits San Francisco, measuring 8.25 on the Richter scale.

The First Sino-Japanese War ends.

Richard Harding Davis, journalist.

Colonel Robert E. Lee turns down an offer to command the Union armies.

Clarence S. Darrow, lawyer.

The first train in Asia begins running from Bombay to Tanna.

U.S. forces defeat Mexicans at Cerro Gordo in one of the bloodiest battle of the Mexican-American War.

The Wilkes’ expedition to the South Pole sets sail.

William Lamb becomes prime minister of England.

A regiment of Indians and blacks is defeated at the Battle of Suwannee, in Florida, ending the First Seminole War.

George Henry Lewes, philosophical writer.

National Guardsmen prevent Louis XVI and his family from leaving Paris.

American revolutionaries Paul Revere and William Dawes ride though the towns of Massachusetts warning that “the British are coming.”

Sudbury, Massachusetts is attacked by Indians.

Martin Luther confronts the emperor Charles V, refusing to retract the views which led to his excommunication.

Lucretia Borgia, daughter of Pope Alexander VI and a patron of the arts.

St. Eusebius of Vercelli begins his reign as Catholic Pope.