Today in History

President Ronald Reagan orders emergency aid for the Honduran army. U.S. helicopters take Honduran troops to the Nicaraguan border.

The U.S. Embassy in San Salvador is damaged when gunmen attack, firing rocket propelled grenades and machine guns.

Hue is lost and Da Nang is endangered by North Vietnamese forces. The United States orders a refugee airlift to remove those in danger.

The Concorde makes its first supersonic flight.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono stage a bed-in for peace in Amsterdam.

Martin Luther King Jr. leads a group of 25,000 to the state capital in Montgomery, Ala.

The European Common Market Treaty is signed in Rome. The goal is to create a common market for all products–especially coal and steel.

RCA manufactures its first color TV set and begins mass production.

The USS Missouri fires on targets at Kojo, North Korea, the last time her guns fire until the Persian Gulf War of 1992.

Aretha Franklin, American singer, the “Queen of Soul.”

Yugoslavia joins the Axis powers.

The United States agrees to give Britain and France access to all American warplanes.

Gloria Steinem, political activist, editor.

Fifty people are killed in riots that break out in India. Mahatma Gandhi was one of many people assaulted.

(Mary) Flannery O’Connor, novelist and short story writer.

The Paris Peace Commission adopts a plan to protect nations from the influx of foreign labor.

The first submarine disaster occurs when a U.S. F-4 sinks off the Hawaiian coast.

A fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, a sweatshop in New York City, claims the lives of 146 workers.

David Lean, British film director (Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia).

Alan John Percivale Taylor, English historian.

Rebel battle flags that were captured during the American Civil War are returned to the South.

Japan invades the kingdom of Liuqiu (Ryukyu) Islands, formerly a vassal of China.

Arturo Toscanini, Italian conductor.

Gutzon Borglum, sculptor of Mount Rushmore.

Confederate forces capture Fort Stedman, during the siege of Petersburg, Va.

William Bell Wait, educator of the blind.

The frigate USS Essex flies the first U.S. flag in battle in the Pacific.

British Parliament abolishes the slave trade.

John Winebrenner, U.S. clergyman who founded the Church of God.

The Continental Congress authorizes a medal for General George Washington.

Joachim Murat, Napoleon‘s brother-in-law who became King of Naples in 1808.

The first horse race in America takes place.

Puritans jail Governor Stone after a military victory over Catholic forces in the colony of Maryland.

Lord Baltimore founds the Catholic colony of Maryland.

Constantine begins his reign as Catholic Pope.