Today in History

New York Governor Mario Cuomo declares that he will not run for president in the next election.

The U.S. State Department calls El Salvador a “textbook case” of a Communist plot.

Britain slashes welfare spending.

Robert F. Kennedy suggests the United States offer the Vietcong a role in governing South Vietnam.

Fourteen Vietnam War protesters are arrested for blocking the United Nations’ doors in New York.

Amy Tan, novelist (The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife).

The U.S. Eighth Air Force and Royal Air Force begin “Big Week,” a series of heavy bomber attacks against German aircraft production facilities.

Port Darwin, on the northern coast of Australia, is bombed by the Japanese.

Smokey Robinson, American singer and songwriter.

Dr. Lane of Princeton estimates the earth’s age at one billion years.

President Calvin Coolidge proposes the phasing out of inheritance tax.

The First Pan African Congress meets in Paris, France.

Carson McCullers, writer (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter).

British and French warships begin their attacks on the Turkish forts at the mouth of the Dardenelles, in an abortive expedition to seize the straits of Gallipoli.

Merle Oberon, film actress.

The Austria-Hungary government decrees a mandatory two year military service.

Kay Boyle, short story writer (“The White Horses of Vienna”).

Russian Tsar Alexander II abolishes serfdom.

Svante Arrhenius, Swedish chemist, founder of physical chemistry.

Rescuers finally reach the ill-fated Donner Party in the Sierras.

William III, King of the Netherlands.

Vice President Aaron Burr is arrested in Alabama for treason. He is later found innocent.

Philip V of Spain makes his ceremonial entry into Madrid.

Philip V, King of Spain.

Nicholas Copernicus, Polish astronomer who introduced the idea that the earth revolved around the sun.

The revolt of Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, against King Henry IV, ends with his defeat and death at Bramham Moor.