Today in History

A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, finds Captain Hazelwood not guilty in the Valdez oil spill.

The Viet Cong propose a new truce with the United States and South Vietnam, which includes general elections.

The U.S. Senate passes the Equal Rights Amendment. The amendment fails to achieve ratification.

President Lyndon Johnson names General William Westmoreland as Army Chief of Staff.

The London gold market reopens for the first time since 1939.

Andrew Lloyd Webber, British composer (The Phantom of the Opera, Cats)

First U.S. built rocket to leave the Earth’s atmosphere reaches a 50-mile height.

Persia is renamed Iran.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill legalizing the sale and possession of beer and wine.

Stephen Sondheim, American composer and lyricist (A Little Night Music, Passion).

Marcel Marceau, French mime.

The first international airline service is inaugurated on a weekly schedule between Paris and Brussels.

A German Zepplin makes a night raid on Paris railway stations.

Louis L’Amour, American Western novelist.

James Gavin, U.S. Army general of the 82nd Airborne Division in WWII.

The first color photograph is published in the London Daily Illustrated Mirror.

Japan proclaims that it is determined to keep Russia from encroaching on Korea.

Randolph Caldecott, illustrator.

Horace Greeley publishes New Yorker, a weekly literary and news magazine and forerunner of Harold Ross’ more successful The New Yorker.

Wilhelm I, German emperor (1871-88)

Congress passes laws prohibiting slave trade with foreign countries although slavery remains legal in the United States.

Thomas Jefferson becomes the first U.S. Secretary of State.

British statesman Edmund Burke makes a speech in the House of Commons, urging the government to adopt a policy of reconciliation with America.

The Stamp Act is passed, the first direct British tax on the American colonists.

Frederick William abolishes serfdom on crown property in Prussia.

Charles II gives large tracts of land from west of the Connecticut River to the east of Delaware Bay in North America to his brother James, the Duke of York.

The first legislation prohibiting gambling is enacted in Boston.

Indians attack a group of colonists in the James River area of Virginia, killing 350 residents.

Sir Anthony Van Dyck, Flemish artist, the namesake of the beard style.