Today in History

U.S. planes bomb Hanoi for the first time.

U.S. diplomats find at least 40 microphones planted in the American embassy in Moscow.

Nora Ephron, screenwriter and director.

The National Football League adopts an annual college draft to begin in 1936.

James Lehrer, broadcast journalist.

Malcolm X (Malcolm Little), African-American activist.

Congress sharply curbs immigration, setting a national quota system.

Johns Hopkins, merchant and philanthropist.

Ho Chi Minh (Nguyen That Thanh), Vietnamese nationalist and political leader.

Lady Nancy Astor (Nancy Witcher Langhorne), the first woman to sit in the British House of Commons.

The Union and Confederate armies launch their last attacks against each other at Spotsylvania, Virginia.

Union General Ulysses S. Grant‘s first attack on Vicksburg is repulsed.

A pro-slavery band led by Charles Hamilton executes unarmed Free State men near Marais des Cygnes on the Kansas-Missouri border.

Senator Charles Sumner speaks out against slavery.

Near total darkness descends on New England at noon. No explanation is found.

Johann Gottlieb Fichte, German philosopher.

The French army defeats a Spanish army at Rocroi, France.

Cardinal Richelieu of France intervenes in the great conflict in Europe by declaring war on the Hapsburgs in Spain.

The Protestant states form the Evangelical Union of Lutherans and Calvinists.

The Spanish Armada sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal.

Defeated by the Protestants, Mary, Queen of Scots, flees to England where Queen Elizabeth imprisons her.

Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII‘s second wife, is beheaded on Tower Green.

French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail for North America.

St. Gregory II begins his reign as Catholic Pope.