Today in History

President Ronald Reagan agrees to contribute U.S. troops to the peacekeeping unit in Beirut.

Operation Overcast begins in Europe–moving Austrian and German scientists and their equipment to the United States.

Lieutenant Jackie Robinson of the U.S. Army, while riding a civilian bus from Camp Hoo, Texas, refuses to give up his seat to a white man.

The 14th Dalai Lama [Tenzin Gyatso], Tibetan religious leader, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Bill Haley, rock ‘n’ roll musician.

Nancy Reagan, wife of President Ronald Reagan.

Dorothy Kirsten, opera singer.

Louis Pasteur gives the first successful anti-rabies inoculation.

The Republican Party is officially organized in Jackson, Michigan.

French General Thomas Bugeaud defeats Abd al-Kader’s forces beside the Sikkak River in Algeria.

John Marshall, the third chief justice of the Supreme Court, dies at the age of 79. Two days later, while tolling in his honor in Philadelphia, the Liberty Bell cracks.

10,000 troops are called out in Paris as unrest mounts in the poorer districts over poverty and lack of food.

The entire Ottoman fleet is destroyed by the Russians at the Battle of Chesma.

John Paul Jones, naval hero of the American Revolution.

James II defeats James, the Duke of Monmouth, at the Battle of Sedgemoor, the last major battle to be fought on English soil.

Jacques Cartier returns to France after discovering the St. Lawrence River in Canada.

Sir Thomas More is beheaded in England for refusing to swear allegiance to King Henry VIII as head of the Church.

Charles of Spain is elected Holy Roman emperor in Barcelona.

Jan Hus, a Czech who spoke out against Church corruption, is burned at the stake as a heretic.