Today in History

U.S. warplanes shoot down four Serb aircraft over Bosnia in the first NATO use of force in the troubled area.

The male electorate in Lichtenstein refuses to give voting rights to women.

A Los Angeles court refuses Robert Kennedy assassin Sirhan Sirhan’s request to be executed.

In Mississippi, 19 are indicted in the slayings of three civil rights workers.

Greece, Turkey and Yugoslavia sign a 5-year defense pact in Ankara.

The U.S. Army declares that it will use V-2 rocket to test radar as an atomic rocket defense system.

U.S. tanks break the natural defense line west of the Rhine and cross the Erft River.

The Japanese Army restores order in Tokyo and arrests officers involved in a coup.

Svetlana Stalin, daughter of Josef Stalin.

U.S. troops are sent to Honduras to protect American interests during an election conflict.

Haiti becomes the first U.S. protectorate.

Denis Burkitt, British medical researcher.

Stephen Spender, English poet, critic.

Linus Pauling, Nobel Prize-winning American chemist.

After a 119-day siege by the Boers, the surrounded British troops in Ladysmith, South Africa, are relieved.

Ben Hecht, writer.

Four Union gunboats destroy the CSS Nashville near Fort McAllister, Georgia.

The territory of Colorado is established.

Colonel Alexander Doniphan and his ragtag Missouri Mounted Volunteers ride to victory at the Battle of Sacramento, during the Mexican War.

Charles Blondin, tightrope walker.

John Tenniel, illustrator of various books (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland).

Indians attack Deerfield, Mass. killing 40 and kidnapping 100.

Thomas West is appointed governor of Virginia.

On the orders of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, two Englishmen and an Irishman are burnt for heresy.

Michel de Montaigne, French moralist who created the personal essay.

Westminster Abbey, the most famous church in England, opens its doors.