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.