Today in History

The “Birmingham Six,” imprisoned for 16 years for their alleged part in an IRA pub bombing, are set free after a court agrees that the police fabricated evidence.

Mikhail S. Gorbachev becomes president of the Soviet Congress.

An Israeli force of 22,000 invades south Lebanon, hitting the PLO bases.

John F. Kennedy‘s body is moved from a temporary grave to a permanent one in Arlington Cemetery.

A Dallas jury finds Jack Ruby guilty of the murder of assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.

The Viet Minh launch an assault against the French Colonial Forces at Dien Bien Phu.

U.N. forces recapture Seoul for the second time during the Korean War.

The United States signs a 99-year lease on naval bases in the Philippines.

The Germans reoccupy Kharkov in the Soviet Union.

The Nazis dissolve the republic of Czechoslovakia.

Adolf Hitler tells a crowd of 300,000 that Germany’s only judge is God and itself.

Eugene Cernan, American astronaut, the last man on the moon.

President Warren G. Harding becomes the first U.S. President to file an income tax report.

An all-Russian Congress of Soviets ratifies a peace treaty with the Central Powers.

The British Navy sinks the German battleship Dresden off the Chilean coast.

An anarchist named Antonio Dalba unsuccessfully attempts to kill Italy’s King Victor Emmanuel III in Rome.

The Senate ratifies the Hay-Herran Treaty, guaranteeing the United States the right to build a canal in Panama.

United States currency goes on the gold standard.

Albert Einstein, German-born mathematician best known for his theories on relativity.

Casey Jones, railroad engineer.

Paul Ehrlich, German bacteriologist who received the Nobel Prize for medicine.

Lucy Hobbs Taylor, first woman dentist.

Johann Strauss, violinist and composer.

Inventor Eli Whitney receives a patent for his cotton gin.

British Admiral John Byng is executed by a firing squad on board HMS Monarch for neglect of duty.

First American town meeting is held at Boston’s Faneuil Hall.

A Royal charter is granted to the Massachusetts Bay Colony.