Today in History

The shuttle Discovery launches on mission STS-114, marking a return to space after the shuttle Columbia crash of 2003.

In an Executive Order, President Harry Truman calls for the end of discrimination and segregation in the U.S. armed forces.

Alan Gordon [Big Al] Anderson, musician, songwriter, member of New Rhythm and Blues Quartet [NRBQ] and The Wildweeds.

Mick [Michael Phillip] Jagger, musician, member of the Rolling Stones.

Bernice Rubens, Welsh novelist and filmmaker.

Britain’s top war ace, Edward Mannock, is shot down by ground fire on the Western Front.

Erskine Hawkins, trumpeter.

Gracie Allen, actress, wife and foil of George Burns.

George Grosz, German satiric artist.

William Gladstone is replaced by Lord Salisbury as Prime Minister of England.

Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist.

George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright (Pygmalion, Heartbreak House, Major Barbara).

The French army suppresses the Paris uprising.

Liberia becomes the first African colony to become an independent state.

King Charles X of France issues five ordinances limiting the political and civil rights of citizens.

George Catlin, American artist and author.

The French defeat an Austrian army at the Battle of Fleurus, France.

An attempt at a counter-revolution in France is put down by the National Guard at Lyons.

The Continental Congress establishes a postal system for the colonies with Benjamin Franklin as the first postmaster general.

The French relinquish Fort Ticonderoga in New York to the British under General Jeffrey Amherst.

British forces capture France’s Fortress of Louisbourg after a seven-week siege.

Francisco Pizarro receives a royal warrant to “discover and conquer” Peru.

Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon and colonists leave Santo Domingo for Florida.

Mu’awiya defeats Caliph Ali in the Battle of Siffin in Mesopotamia.