Today in History

Pope John Paul II says mass to one million in Venezuela.

The State Supreme Court rules that Nazis can display the Swastika in a march in Skokie, Illinois.

A cease fire in Vietnam is called as the Paris peace accords are signed by the United States and North Vietnam.

Three astronauts are killed in a flash fire that engulfed their Apollo 1 spacecraft.

Military leaders oust the civilian government of Tran Van Huong in Saigon.

NASA selects 110 candidates for the first U.S. space flight.

The first U.S. raids on the Reich blast Wilhelmshaven base and Emden.

The United States and Great Britain begin high-level military talks in Washington.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt approves the sale of U.S. war planes to France.

A League of Nations majority favors depriving Japan of mandates.

Lenin’s body is laid in a marble tomb on Red Square near the Kremlin.

Communists attempt to seize power in Finland.

President Woodrow Wilson opens preparedness program.

Russian General Kuropatkin takes the offensive in Manchuria. The Japanese under General Oyama suffer heavy casualties.

Hyman Rickover, American admiral who is considered the “Father of the Atomic Submarine.”

President Abraham Lincoln issues General War Order No. 1, setting in motion the Union armies.

Kaiser Wilhelm II, emperor who ruled Germany during World War I but was forced to abdicate in 1918.

Samuel Gompers, first President of American Federation of Labor.

Congress approves Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma), clearing the way for forced relocation of the Eastern Indians on the “Trail of Tears.”

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian musical genius and composer whose works included The Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute.

Mustafa II becomes the Ottoman sultan in Istanbul on the death of Amhed II.