Today in History

Serb forces begin their withdrawal from Kosovo after signing an agreement with the NATO powers.

The Israeli army pulls out of Lebanon after 1,099 days of occupation.

A 15-man group of special forces troops begin training for Operation Kingpin, a POW rescue mission in North Vietnam.

Buddhist monk Ngo Quang Duc dies by self immolation in Saigon to protest persecution by the Diem government.

The news that the sound barrier has been broken is finally released to the public by the U.S. Air Force. Chuck Yeager, piloting the rocket airplane X-1, exceeded the speed of sound on October 14, 1947.

The U.S. VII and V corps, advancing from Normandy’s beaches, link up and begin moving inland.

The Allies begin bombing Germany around the clock.

Germany razes the town of Lidice, Czechoslovakia and kills more than 1,300 citizens in retribution of the murder of Reinhard Heydrich.

The Norwegian army capitulates to the Germans.

F. Lee Bailey, American defense attorney.

Maurice Sendak, children’s author and illustrator (Where the Wild Things Are).

Nat Hentoff, journalist.

The Italian socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti is kidnapped and assassinated by Fascists in Rome.

Judy Garland (Frances Ethel Gumm), American actress and singer (The Wizard of Oz, Easter Parade).

The Republican convention in Chicago endorses women’s suffrage.

Mecca, under control of the Turks, falls to the Arabs during the Great Arab Revolt.

Saul Bellow, American novelist (Herzog, Humboldt’s Gift).

An SOS signal is transmitted for the first time in an emergency when the Cunard liner SS Slavonia is wrecked off the Azores.

Japan and Russia agree to peace talks brokered by President Theodore Roosevelt.

Frederick Loewe, songwriter.

U.S. Marines land in Cuba.

Hattie McDaniel, African-American actress.

At the Battle of Brice’s Crossroads in Mississippi, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest defeats the numerically superior Union troops.

Dorothea Dix is appointed superintendent of female nurses for the Union army.

The U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, holds its first graduation.

Tripoli declares war on the U.S. for refusing to pay tribute.

The Continental Congress appoints a committee to write a Declaration of Independence.

John Morgan, physician-in-chief of the American Continental Army.

Bridget Bishop is hanged in Salem, Mass., for witchcraft.

Frederick Barbarossa drowns in a river while leading an army of the Third Crusade.