Today in History

Svetlana Savitskaya becomes first woman to perform a space walk.

The first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, is born in Oldham, England.

Allied forces begin the breakthrough of German lines in Normandy.

Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini is overthrown in a coup.

The U.S. government freezes Japanese and Chinese assets.

Barbara Harris, actress.

Austrian chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss is shot and killed by Nazis.

Midge Decter, writer and editor.

Greece announces the deportation of 50,000 Armenians.

Russia declares that it will act to protect Serbian sovereignty.

French aviator Louis Bleriot becomes the first man to fly across the English Channel in an airplane.

Johnny Hodges, jazz musician.

Eric Hoffer, American longshoreman and philosopher (The True Believer, Before the Sabbath),

Japanese forces sink the British steamer Kowshing which was bringing Chinese reinforcements to Korea.

Morris Raphael Cohen, American philosopher and mathematician.

President Andrew Johnson signs an act creating the territory of Wyoming.

The Crittenden Resolution, calling for the American Civil War to be fought to preserve the Union and not for slavery, is passed by Congress.

David Belasco, actor, playwright and producer.

Gold is discovered in the Rogue River in Oregon, extending the quest for gold up the Pacific coast.

Arthur James Balfour, Prime Minister of England (1902-1905).

China grants Belgium equal trading rights with Britain, France and the United States.

Thomas Eakins, American painter.

British and American forces fight each other to a standoff at Lundy’s Lane, Canada.

On his way back from Syria, Napoleon Bonaparte defeats the Ottomans at Aboukir, Egypt.

British forces defeat a French army at Fort Niagara in Canada.

Hideyoshi bans Christianity in Japan and orders all Christians to leave.

Maximilian II becomes emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

Charles VI of France issues a decree for the general expulsion of Jews from France.

Emperor Constantine refuses to carry out traditional pagan sacrifices.