Today in History

The impeachment trial of US President Bill Clinton opens in the US Senate.

The Bosnian Army carries out a surprise attack on the village of Kravica in Srebrenica during the Bosnian War.

Safety concerns over structural problems force the Leaning Tower of Pisa to be closed to the public.

Prince Akihito is sworn in as Emperor of Japan, following the death of his father, Hirohito.

Japan launches its first interplanetary spacecraft, Sakigake, the first deep space probe launched by any nation other than the US or the USSR.

US President Jimmy Carter signs legislation providing $1.5 billion in loans to salvage Chrysler Corporation.

Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge are overthrown when Vietnamese troops seize the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.

Vietnamese troops take Phuoc Binh in new full-scale offensive.

Katie Couric, journalist, author; has hosted news and talk shows on all three major TV networks.

Marian Anderson becomes the first African American to sing at the Metropolitan Opera House.

French forces in Indochina launch Operation Violette in an effort to push Viet Minh forces away from the town of Ba Vi.

Kenny Loggins, singer, songwriter; half of Loggins and Messina duo.

U.S. air ace Major Thomas B. McGuire, Jr. is killed in the Pacific.

The U.S. Air Force announces the production of the first jet-fighter, Bell P-59 Airacomet.

Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark.

Six thousand pastors in Berlin defy the Nazis insisting that they will not be silenced.

Jack Greene, country singer, musician; won Country Music Association Male Vocalist of the Year, Single of the Year, Album of the Year and Song of the Year for “There Goes My Everything” (1967).

Jean-Pierre Rampal, flautist.

The Germans move 75,000 troops from the Eastern Front to the Western Front.

Charles Addams, cartoonist, creator of the Addams Family.

Butterfly McQueen (Thelma McQueen), actress best known for her role as Scarlett O’Hara’s maid Prissy in Gone with the Wind (1939); won Daytime Emmy portraying Aunt Thelma, a fairy godmother in “The Seven Wishes of Joanna Peabody,” an ABC Afterschool Special.

Imperial Court of China returns to Peking. The Empress Dowager resumes her reign.

New York stock exchange trading exceeds two million shares for the first time in history.

Cheyenne and Sioux warriors attack Julesburg, Colo., in retaliation for the Sand Creek Massacre.

Louis III, last King of Bavaria.

Responding to Napoleon Bonaparte‘s attempted blockade of the British Isles, the British blockade Continental Europe.

Millard Fillmore, 13th President of the United States.

Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American Dr. John Jeffries make the first crossing of the English Channel in a hydrogen balloon.

Etienne Montgolfier, French inventor who, with his brother, launched the first successful hot-air balloon.

Israel Putnam, American Revolutionary War hero.

The French, under the Duke of Guise, finally take the port of Calais from the English.

King Edward II of England is deposed.