Today in History

Protesting students take over Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China.

The Afghanistan revolution begins.

Saigon is encircled by North Vietnamese troops.

The United Kingdom grants Sierra Leone independence.

South Africa passes the Group Areas Act, formally segregating races.

The Greek army capitulates to the invading Germans.

German bombers of the Condor Legion devastate Guernica, Spain.

Coretta Scott King, civil rights activist, wife of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Sultan of Turkey, Abdul Hamid II, is overthrown.

Cecil Day-Lewis, Irish poet, father of actor Daniel Day-Lewis.

Walter Lantz, cartoonist, creator of Woody Woodpecker.

The Sultana, a steam-powered riverboat, catches fire and burns after one of its boilers explodes. At least 1,238 of the 2,031 passengers–mostly former Union POWs–are killed.

The Army of the Potomac begins marching on Chancellorsville.

West Virginia secedes from Virginia after Virginia secedes from the Union.

Edward Whymper, the first man to climb the Matterhorn.

Ulysses S. Grant, Union general during the American Civil War, 18th President of the United States (1869-1877).

American forces capture York (present-day Toronto), the seat of government in Ontario.

Samuel F.B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph and the code.

British Parliament passes the Tea Act.

King George II wins the Battle of Culloden.

Edward Gibbon, historian (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire).

The first Spanish settlement in Philippines is established in Cebu City.

Pope Julius II excommunicates the Italian state of Venice.

Edward I defeats the Scots at the Battle of Dunbar.