Today in History

Murray Haydon becomes the third person to receive an artificial heart.

China begins a “pedagogical” war against Vietnam. It will last until March.

Art by Cezanne, Gauguin, Renoir, and van Gogh, valued at $5 million, is stolen from the Municipal Museum in Milan.

President Richard Nixon names Patrick Gray director of the FBI.

Russia and Peru sign their first trade accord.

Michael Jordan, basketball player for the Chicago Bulls.

Martin Luther King Jr. is arrested in the Alabama bus boycott.

The United States launches its first weather station in space, Vanguard II.

Britain announces its ability to make hydrogen bombs.

Packard introduces its “250” Chassis Convertible.

Gen. MacArthur’s troops land on Corregidor in the Philippines.

U.S forces land on Eniwetok atoll in the South Pacific.

The first color television is demonstrated at the Dominion Theatre in London.

Thirty-one prisoners escape an Oklahoma prison after murdering a guard.

The League of Nations censures Japan in a worldwide broadcast.

Chaim Potok, novelist (The Chosen, The Promise).

The first issue of Harold Ross’ magazine, The New Yorker, hits the stands, selling for 15 cents a copy.

Germany signs an armistice giving up territory in Poland.

Apache chief Geronimo dies of pneumonia at age 80, while still in captivity at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

Walter Lanier “Red” Barber, baseball announcer for the Cincinnati Reds, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees.

Marian Anderson, American singer.

Thomas J. Watson Sr., U.S. industrialist.

The South Carolina capital city, Columbia, is destroyed by fire as Major General William Tecumseh Sherman marches through.

A(ndrew) B(arton) “Banjo” Paterson, Australian poet and journalist.

The House of Representatives breaks an electoral college tie and chooses Thomas Jefferson over Aaron Burr.

Raphaelle Peale, U.S. painter

Spain signs the Treaty of the Hague with the Quadruple Alliance ending a war that was begun in 1718.

Boris Godunov, the boyar of Tarar origin, is elected czar in succession to his brother-in-law Fydor.

At a grand feast, Philip the Good of Burgundy takes the “vow of the pheasant,” by which he swears to fight the Turks.