Today in History

Lithuania declares its independence from the Soviet Union.

Mikhail Gorbachev is named the new Soviet leader.

An FBI agent is shot at Wounded Knee in South Dakota.

Levi-Strauss starts to sell bell-bottomed jeans.

Three men are convicted of the murder of Malcolm X.

The American navy begins inspecting Vietnamese junks in hopes of ending arms smuggling to the South.

Douglas Adams, British writer, (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy).

General Douglas MacArthur leaves Bataan for Australia.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorizes the Lend-Lease Act which authorizes the act of giving war supplies to the Allies.

The German Air Force becomes an official organ of the Reich.

President Howard Taft becomes the first U.S. president to be buried in the National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.

Ralph David Abernathy, civil rights leader, associate of Dr. King.

Lawrence Welk, orchestra leader.

President Teddy Roosevelt induces California to revoke its anti-Japanese legislation.

The Parisian subway is officially inaugurated.

British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury rejects the peace overtures offered from Boer leader Paul Kruger.

Frederick IX, King of Denmark

A disastrous blizzard hits the northeastern United States. Some 400 people die, mainly from exposure.

Sir Michael Campbell, the first motorist to exceed 300 mph.

Union General William Sherman and his forces occupy Fayetteville, N.C.

Union troops under General Ulysess S. Grant give up their preparations to take Vicksburg after failing to pass Fort Pemberton, north of Vicksburg.

A Confederate Convention is held in Montgomery, Ala., where the new constitution is adopted.

Thomas Hastings, architect of the New York Public Library.

Seven hundred Maoris led by their chief, Hone-Heke, burn the small town of Kororareka in protest at the settlement of Maoriland by Europeans, in breach with the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi.

The U.S. War Department creates the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Seneca Indian Ely Parker becomes the first Indian to lead the Bureau.

Ned Ludd leads a group of workers in a wild protest against mechanization.

The Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte is married by proxy to Archduchess Marie Louise.

Robert Treat Paine, Declaration of Independence signer

The Daily Courant, the first regular English newspaper is published.

A new legal code is approved for the Dutch and English towns, guaranteeing religious observances unhindered.

The peace of Rueil is signed between the Frondeurs (rebels) and the French government.

The Goths lay siege to Rome.