Today in History

The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 10, becoming the first mission to the Salyut 1 space station.

Sirhan Sirhan is sentenced to death for killing Senator Robert Kennedy.

President Lyndon Johnson publicly appeals for more nations to come to the aid of South Vietnam.

The Army-McCarthy hearings begin.

Chiang Kai-shek evacuates Hainan, leaving mainland China to Mao Zedong and the communists.

The Soviet Army fights its way into Berlin.

Jim Fixx, runner and writer who popularized running as a form of exercise in the 1970s.

Shirley Temple Black, child actress, later U.S. ambassador.

Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Mercury and Gemini astronaut, died in an accident on Apollo 1.

The U.S. Senate passes the Soldiers’ Bonus Bill.

The Turkish Grand National Assembly has first meeting in Ankara.

The ACA becomes the National Advisory Council on Aeronautics (NACA), the forerunner of NASA.

The Federals defeat Kansas City 9-1 in the first major league game to be played in Chicago’s Weeghman Park, later renamed Wrigley Field.

Halldór Laxness, Nobel Prize-winning Icelandic novelist (The Fish Can Sing, Paradise Reclaimed).

Lucius D. Clay, U.S. military governor of occupied Berlin.

Motion pictures premiere in New York City.

Russia, France, and Germany force Japan to return the Liaodong peninsula to China.

Union cavalry units continue to skirmish with Confederate forces in Henderson, North Carolina and Munford’s Station, Alabama.

Free Stater J.N. Mace in Westport, Kansas shoots pro-slavery sheriff Samuel Jones in the back.

Missolonghi falls to Egyptian forces.

Stephen A. Douglas, American politician.

James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States (1857-1861).

President George Washington moves into Franklin House, New York.

British forces seize Basse-Terre and Guadeloupe from France.

Charles II is formally crowned king, returning the monarchy to Britain, albeit with greatly reduced powers.

The Comuneros are crushed by royalist troops in Spain.

Pedro Cabral claims Brazil for Portugal.

The first English order of knighthood is founded.