Today in History

Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers is bought for $39.85 million.

President Ronald Reagan is shot and wounded in Washington, D.C. by John W. Hinckley Jr.

As the North Vietnamese forces move toward Saigon, desperate South Vietnamese soldiers mob rescue jets.

Hanoi launches its heaviest attack in four years, crossing the DMZ.

Tunisia and Morocco sign a friendship treaty in Rabat.

President Harry S Truman denounces Senator Joe McCarthy as a saboteur of U.S. foreign policy.

The Allies seize 1,000 Nazis attempting to revive the Nazi party in Frankfurt.

The Red Army advances into Austria.

The U.S. fleet attacks Palau, near the Philippines.

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s first collaboration, Oklahoma, opens on Broadway.

The German Afrika Korps under General Erwin Rommel begins its first offensive against British forces in Libya.

Britain announces a naval construction program of 38 warships. This is the largest construction program in 15 years.

Mexican bandit Pancho Villa kills 172 at the Guerrero garrison in Mexico.

The Queensboro Bridge in New York opens. It is the first double decker bridge and links Manhattan and Queens.

In Afghanistan, Russian troops inflict a crushing defeat on Afghan forces, despite orders not to fight.

Jo Davidson, American sculptor.

Sean O’Casey, Irish playwright.

President U.S. Grant signs bill readmitting Texas to the Union, the last Confederate state readmitted.

Russian Baron Stoeckl and U.S. Secretary of State Seward complete the draft of a treaty ceding Alaska to the United States. The treaty is signed the following day.

Hyman L. Lipman of Philadelphia patents the pencil with an eraser attached on one end.

Vincent Van Gogh, Dutch impressionist artist.

“”Beau” Brummell, the English dandy and former favorite of the prince regent, dies in a French lunatic asylum for paupers.

Anna Sewell, English novelist (Black Beauty).

Sir John Hawkins, author of the first history of music.

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella sign a decree expelling all Jews from Spain.