Today in History

An American Stealth F117 Nighthawk is shot down over northern Yugoslavia during NATO air strikes.

Jesse Owens receives the Congressional Gold Medal from President George Bush.

The U.S. Senate passes $100 million aid package for the Nicaraguan contras.

A major accident occurs at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear power plant

Dwight D. Eisenhower dies at Walter Reed General Hospital in Washington, D.C.

The U.S. Air Force announces research into the use of lasers to intercept missiles and satellites.

Juan Peron is elected President of Argentina. He will hold the office for six years.

Germany launches the last of its V-2 rockets against England.

A British ship, the HMS Campbeltown, a Lend-Lease American destroyer, which was specifically rammed into a German occupied dry-dock in France, explodes, knocking the area out of action for the German battleship Tirpitz.

English novelist Virginia Woolf throws herself into the River Ouse near her home in Sussex. Her body will not be found until April 18.

The Spanish Civil War ends as Madrid falls to Francisco Franco.

Mario Vargas Llosa, Peruvian novelist (Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, Death in the Andes).

Nazis order a ban on all Jews in businesses, professions and schools.

Jerome Isaac Friedman, American physicist, helped confirm the existence of quarks.

Frederick Exley, American novelist (A Fan’s Notes).

President Warren Harding names William Howard Taft as chief justice of the United States.

The Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) is founded, Great Britain’s first official service women.

The first seaplane takes off from water at Martiniques, France.

Nelson Algren, novelist (The Man with the Golden Arm, A Walk on the Wild Side).

Automobile owners lobby Congress in support of a bill that calls for vehicle licensing and federal registration.

James McCudden, the first RAF pilot to receive the Victoria Cross.

The Salvation Army is officially organized in the United States.

Maxim Gorky, Russian short story writer and novelist.

A group of Copperheads attack Federal soldiers in Charleston, Illinois. Five are killed and twenty wounded.

Aristide Briand, premier of France (1909-22).

Britain and France declare war on Russia.

Wade Hampton, Confederate general in the American Civil War.

Britain passes the Coercive Act against rebellious Massachusetts.

Samuel Sewall, British colonial merchant and one of the Salem witch trial judges.