Today in History

In South Africa, Winnie Mandela is sentenced to six years in prison for her part in the kidnapping and beating of three black youths and the death of a fourth.

The U.S. space station Skylab is launched.

Three companies of the 101st Airborne Division fail to push North Vietnamese forces off Hill 937 in South Vietnam.

A bus carrying black and white civil rights activists is bombed and burned in Alabama.

Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion establishes the State of Israel.

Robert Jarvik, American physician.

George Lucas, film director and producer (Star Wars).

The British Army, in retreat from Burma, reaches India.

Holland surrenders to Germany.

A plebiscite in the Philippines ratifies an independence agreement.

Richard P. Brickner, novelist (The Broken Year).

Sidney Bechet, jazz clarinetist and soprano saxaphone player.

Union General Nathanial Banks heads towards Port Hudson along the Mississippi River.

Gail Borden applies for a patent for condensed milk.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition officially begins as the Corps of Discovery departs from St. Charles, Missouri.

English physician Edward Jenner gives the first successful smallpox vaccination.

Thomas Wedgwood, English physicist, photography pioneer.

Thomas Gainsborough, painter (“Blue Boy”).

Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit, German physicist, instrument maker, inventor of the thermometer.

French King Henri IV (Henri de Navarre) is assassinated by François Ravaillac, a fanatical monk.

Margaret of Valois, queen consort of Navarre.

At the Battle of Agnadello, the French defeat the Venitians in Northern Italy.

King Henry III is captured by his brother-in-law, Simon de Montfort, at the Battle of Lewes.