Today in History

Deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein captured; he is found hiding in near his home town of Tikrit.

Terrorists attach the Parliament of India Sansad; 15 people are killed, including the terrorists

Taylor Swift, multiple award-winning crossover country singer, actress; youngest-ever Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year and youngest artist ever to win an Album of the Year Grammy.

France sues the United States over the discovery of an AIDS serum.

Polish labor leader Lech Walesa is arrested and the government decrees martial law, restricting civil rights and suspending operation of the independent trade union Solidarity.

Great Britain cuts the work week to three days to save energy.

Astronaut Gene Cernan climbs into his lunar lander on the moon and prepares to lift off. He is the last man to set foot on the moon.

President Lyndon B. Johnson and Mexico’s President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz meet on a bridge at El Paso, Texas, to officiate at ceremonies returning the long-disputed El Chamizal area to the Mexican side of the border.

Jamie Foxx, actor, singer.

John Anderson, country singer, musician.

After meeting with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, President Harry S Truman vows to purge all disloyal government workers.

Ted Nugent, singer, songwriter, musician, actor.

France and Britain agree to quit Syria and Lebanon.

British forces launch an offensive in Libya.

Adolf Hitler issues preparations for Operation Martita, the German invasion of Greece.

The Japanese army occupies Nanking, China. Boeing’s Trailblazing P-26 Peashooters.

Richard D. Zanuck, film producer; won Academy Award for Best Picture in 1989 (Driving Miss Daisy).

Dick Van Dyke, actor, singer, producer; (The Dick Van Dyke TV series, Mary Poppins).

Phillip Anderson, physicist.

Kenneth Patchen, American poet and author (Before the Brave, Hurrah for Anything).

The Dutch take two Venezuelan Coast Guard ships.

The Committee of Imperial Defense holds its first meeting in London.

Marc Connelly, playwright, actor, director and journalist (The Green Pastures).

The Battle of Fredericksburg ends with the bloody slaughter of onrushing Union troops at Marye’s Heights. Maine’s Colonel Chamberlain at Marye’s Heights.

Alexis Millardet, botanist who developed the first successful fungicide.

Phillips Brooks, Episcopal clergyman who wrote the lyrics for "O Little Town of Bethlehem."

Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of President Abraham Lincoln.

General Andrew Jackson announces martial law in New Orleans, Louisiana, as British troops disembark at Lake Borne, 40 miles east of the city. The Battle of New Orleans

The last remnants of Napoleon Bonaparte’s Grand Armeé reach the safety of Kovno, Poland, after the failed Russian campaign. Napoleon’s costly retreat from Moscow

Heinrich Heine, German poet, satirist and journalist.

The National Guard is created in France.

William Drummond, Scottish poet.