Today in History

NASA reveals photographs from Mars Global Surveyor that suggest the presence of water on the red planet.

The Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, India, is destroyed during a riot that started as a political protest.

Democrat Tip O’Neill is elected speaker of the House of Representatives. He will serve the longest consecutive term as speaker.

A Provisional IRA unit takes a couple hostage in Balcombe Street, London, and a 6-day siege begins.

US House of Representatives confirms Gerald Ford as Vice-President of the United States, 387–35.

Pakistan severs diplomatic relations with India after New Delhi recognizes the state of Bangladesh.

Hells Angels, hired to provide security at a Rolling Stones concert at the Altamont Speedway in California, beat to death concert-goer Meredith Hunter.

Judd Apatow, film producer, director, screenwriter (Bridesmaids).

 Vanguard TV3 explodes on the launchpad, thwarting the first US attempt to launch a satellite into Earth’s orbit.

Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.

JoBeth Williams, actress, director (Poltergeist, The Big Chill); current (2013) president of the Screen Actors Guild Foundation.

Florida’s Everglades National Park is established.

The United States extends a $3 billion loan to Great Britain to help compensate for the termination of the Lend-Lease agreement.

Peter Handke, playwright and poet.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues a personal appeal to Emperor Hirohito to use his influence to avoid war.

Britain agrees to send arms to Finland, which is fighting off a Soviet invasion.

France and Germany sign a treaty of friendship.

American Ambassador Davis says Japan is a grave security threat in the Pacific.

Benito Mussolini threatens Italian newspapers with censorship if they keep reporting “false” information.

Ireland’s 26 southern counties become independent from Britain forming the Irish Free State.

Dave Brubeck, jazz pianist and composer.

The Bolsheviks imprison Czar Nicholas II and his family in Tobolsk.

Lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge flies a powered, man-carrying kite that carries him 168 feet in the air for seven minutes at Baddeck, Nova Scotia.

Eliot Porter, nature photographer.

Gunnar Myrdal, Swedish economist and sociologist.

Ira Gershwin, American lyricist and musical collaborator with his brother George.

Joyce Kilmer, American poet, best known for “Trees.”

Thomas A. Edison makes the first sound recording when he recites “Mary had a Little Lamb” into his phonograph machine.

Jack McCall is convicted for the murder of Wild Bill Hickok and sentenced to hang.

The 13th Amendment is ratified, abolishing slavery.

The monitor Weehawken sinks in Charleston Harbor.

President Abraham Lincoln orders the hanging of 39 of the 303 convicted Indians who participated in the Sioux Uprising in Minnesota. They are to be hanged on December 26.

Union General George G. Meade leads a foraging expedition to Gunnell’s farm near Dranesville, Virginia.

The majority of Napoleon Bonaparte’s Grand Armeé staggers into Vilna, Lithuania, ending the failed Russian campaign.

Phi Beta Kappa, the first scholastic fraternity, is founded at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg.

Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Santo Domingo in search of gold.

Henry VI, the youngest king of England to accede to the throne (only 269 days old).