Today in History

After 22 Earth orbits, Gordon Cooper returns to Earth, ending the last mission of Project Mercury.

A Big Four summit in Paris collapses because of the American U-2 spy plane affair.

Olga Korbut, Olympic gymnast.

Chinese Communist Forces launch second phase of the Chinese Spring Offensive in the Korean War and gain up to 20 miles of territory.

A specially trained and equipped Royal Air Force squadron destroys two river dams in Germany.

Adrienne Rich, poet (Diving into the Wreck).

The first Academy Awards are held in Hollywood.

Joan of Arc is canonized in Rome.

Woody Herman, jazz bandleader.

Studs Terkel, author and historian.

Henry Fonda, American actor (Grapes of Wrath, On Golden Pond).

Douglas Southall Freeman, journalist, historian, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer.

The Treaty of Gandamak between Russia and England sets up the Afghan state.

President Andrew Johnson is acquitted during Senate impeachment, by one vote, cast by Edmund G. Ross.

At the Battle of Champion’s Hill, Union General Ulysess S. Grant repulses the Confederates, driving them into Vicksburg.

Johannes von Mikulicz-Radecki, Polish surgical pioneer.

Edmund Kirby-Smith, Confederate general during the American Civil War.

Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, founder of the first U.S. kindergarten.

William Henry Seward, U.S. Secretary of State (1861-1869).

Marie Antoinette marries future King Louis XVI of France.