Today in History

In Africa, Rwandan troops kill thousands of Hutu refugees in Kibeho.

Barbara Walters becomes the first female nightly news anchor on network television.

Congress orders all U.S. coins to bear the motto “In God We Trust.”

The Senate Army-McCarthy hearings begin. They are broadcast on television.

Allies launch major attack against the Japanese in Hollandia, New Guinea.

Louise Gluck, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet.

Egypt signs treaty of friendship with Iraq.

Charles Mingus, jazz bassist.

Robert Wadlow, the world’s tallest man (8’11.1″).

Yehudi Menuhin, violinist.

At the Second Battle of Ypres, the Germans use poison gas for the first time.

J. Robert Oppenheimer, physicist, director of the Manhattan Project.

Vladimir Nabokov, Russian novelist (Lolita).

In the first action of the Spanish-American War, the USS Nashville, takes on a Spanish ship.