Today in History

The largest air show disaster in history occurs when a Sukhoi Su-27 fighter crashes during an air show at Lviv, Ukraine, killing 85 and injuring more than 100 others.

Israeli guns and aircraft pound southern Lebanon in reprisal for rocket attacks by Hezbollah guerrillas.

William Wyler, director of Ben Hur, dies.

Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran dies in Cairo, Egypt.

President Lyndon Johnson sends an additional 5,000 advisers to South Vietnam.

Representatives of the United Nations, Korea and China sign an armistice at Panmunjom, Korea.

U.S. troops complete the liberation of Guam.

Bharati Mukherjee, Indian novelist (The Middleman and Other Stories).

Michael Longley, Irish poet.

David Hughes, English novelist (The Horsehair Sofa, The Man Who Invented Tomorrow).

Canadians Sir Frederick Banting and Charles Best isolate insulin at the University of Toronto.

British troops invade the streets of Dublin, Ireland, and begin to disarm Irish rebels.

Orville Wright sets a world record for staying aloft in an airplane–one hour, 12 minutes and 40 seconds.

Joseph Mitchell, writer for The New Yorker.

Leo Durocher, baseball player and manager.

The International Workers of the World found their labor organization in Chicago.

Hilaire Belloc, French writer (Cautionary Tales).

President Abraham Lincoln replaces General Irwin McDowell with General George B. McClellen as head of the Army of the Potomac.

Robespierre becomes a member of the Committee of Public Safety.

British and French fleets fight to a standoff in the first Battle of Ushant.

Thomas Campbell, Scottish writer (The Pleasures of Hope).

Charlotte Corday, French revolutionary, assassin of Jean Paul Marat.

The Scottish Jacobites experience a victory over government-supporting clans at the Battle of Killiecrankie.

The British Parliament passes a second Navigation Act, requiring all goods bound for the colonies be sent in British ships from British ports.

Sir Walter Raleigh returns to England from Virginia.

Frederick II is deposed by a council at Lyons, which found him guilty of sacrilege.

At the Battle of Bouvines in France, Philip Augustus of France defeats John of England.