Today in History

Congress approves $100 million in aid to the Contras fighting in Nicaragua.

White House Counsel John Dean admits President Richard Nixon took part in the Watergate cover-up.

President Lyndon Johnson orders 200 naval personnel to Mississippi to assist in finding three missing civil rights workers.

The U.S. Supreme Court bans official prayers in public schools.

The Cuban government seizes 2.35 million acres under a new agrarian reform law.

North Korea invades South Korea, beginning the Korean War.

The Soviet Union tightens its blockade of Berlin by intercepting river barges heading for the city.

Ho Chi Minh travels to France for talks on Vietnamese independence.

Finland declares war on the Soviet Union.

Samuel Gompers is elected head of the American Federation of Labor for the 40th time.

The Greeks take 8,000 Turkish prisoners in Smyrna.

George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair), novelist, essayist and critic (Animal Farm, 1984).

George Abbott, American playwright, director and producer (Three Men on a Horse, Damn Yankees).

Henry (Hap) Arnold, U.S. Army Air Force general during World War II.

Crystal Eastman, suffragist.

General George A. Custer and over 260 men of the Seventh Cavalry are wiped out by Sioux and Cheyenne Indians at Little Bighorn in Montana.

The U.S. Congress enacts legislation granting an eight-hour day to workers employed by the federal government.

Union troops surrounding Petersburg, Virginia, begin building a mine tunnel underneath the Confederate lines.

The first day of the Seven Days’ campaign begins with fighting at Oak Grove, Virginia.

Gustave Flaubert goes on trial for public immorality regarding his novel, Madame Bovary.

Mexican Indians riot as Jesuit priests are ordered home.

Aurangzeb proclaims himself emperor of the Moghuls in India.

Charles the Bald and Louis the German defeat Lothar at Fontenay.