Today in History

The Soviet Union charges American pilot Francis Gary Powers with espionage.

Anna Quindlen, novelist.

Faye Wattleton, women’s rights advocate.

20 B-17s fly in their first mission with the Royal Air Force over Wilhelmshaven, Germany.

Ernest Hemingway is wounded in Italy while working as an ambulance driver for the American Red Cross.

Nelson Rockefeller, U.S. vice president to Gerald Ford.

Philip C. Johnson, architect.

The mutinous crew of the battleship Potemkin surrenders to Romanian authorities.

The first ship to use electric lights departs from San Francisco, California.

William Vaughn Moody, poet and playwright (The Great Divide).

Four of the conspirators in President Abraham Lincoln‘s assassination are hanged in Washington, D.C.

Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston retreats into Atlanta to prevent being flanked by Union General William T. Sherman.

Demoralized by the surrender of Vicksburg, Confederates in Port Hudson, Louisiana, surrender to Union forces.

The truce at Villafranca Austria cedes Lombardy to France.

John D. Rockefeller, financier, philanthropist, founder of Standard Oil.

Ferdinand von Zeppelin, German designer and manufacturer of airships.

29-year old poet Percy Bysshe Shelley drowns while sailing in Italy.

With Napoleon defeated, Louis XVIII returns to Paris.

French troops capture Brussels, Belgium.

The British attack on Fort Carillon at Ticonderoga, New York, is foiled by the French.

Britain breaks off diplomatic relations with France as their disputes in the New World intensify.

Peter the Great defeats Charles XII at Poltava, in the Ukraine, effectively ending the Swedish empire.

The Austrians take Budapest from the Turks and annex Hungary.

The British crown grants Rhode Island a charter guaranteeing freedom of worship.

Jean de La Fontaine, poet and author (Fables).

The first French settlement at Quebec is established by Samuel de Champlain.

Christian Crusaders march around Jerusalem as Muslims watch from within the city.