Today in History

Saddam Hussein, former Iraq dictator, is executed by hanging for crimes committed against his own people during his rule.

Governor Carey of New York pardons seven inmates, closing the book on the Attica uprising.

After two weeks of heavy bombing raids on North Vietnam, President Nixon halts the air offensive and agrees to resume peace negotiations with Hanoi representative Le Duc Tho.

Ferdinand E. Marcos is sworn in as the Philippine Republic’s sixth president.

Romania’s King Michael is forced to abdicate by Soviet-backed Communists. Communists now control all of Eastern Europe.

Sandy Koufax, Hall of Fame left-handed pitcher with the L.A. Dodgers.

The Soviet Union bars food handouts for housewives under 36 years of age. They must now work to eat.

Bo Diddley, blues composer and singer.

Soviet Russia is renamed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Governor Frank Steunenberg of Idaho is killed by an assassin’s bomb.

Tojo Hideki, Japanese Prime Minister during World War II.

Simon Guggenheim, philanthropist and U.S. senator for Colorado.

Rudyard Kipling, British author (Jungle Book, Soldiers Three).

The draft of the Emancipation Proclamation is finished and circulated among President Abraham Lincoln‘s cabinet for comment.

Banks in the United States suspend the practice of redeeming paper money for metal currency, a practice that would continue until 1879.

The United States takes possession of the Louisiana area from France at New Orleans with a simple ceremony, the simultaneous lowering and raising of the national flags.

The Duke of York is defeated and killed by Lancastrians at the Battle of Wakefield.