Today in History

The Republic of Ireland, long known as a conservative, predominantly Catholic country, becomes the first nation in the world to legalize gay marriage in a public referendum.

An EF5 tornado kills at least 158 people in Joplin, Missouri, the largest death toll from a tornado since record-keeping began in 1950.

Following a 200-year search for the tomb of Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus his remains are reburied in Frombork Cathedral

Fahrenheit 9-11, directed by Michael Moore, becomes the first documentary ever to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Johnny Carson’s final appearance on The Tonight Show on NBC, after 30 years as the program’s host.

In the Middle East, North and South Yemen merge to become a single state.

Baseball player Pete Rose passes Hank Aaron as National League run scoring leader with 2,108.

Ceylon becomes the Republic of Sri Lanka as its constitution is ratified.

The children’s program Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood premiers.

The Truman Doctrine brings aid to Turkey and Greece.

Betty Williams, Northern Irish political activist who won of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski, infamous as Unabomber terrorist.

Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini sign a “Pact of Steel” forming the Axis powers.

Harvey Milk, one of the first openly gay politicians to win public office in the United States, a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977.

T Boone Pickens, oil magnate and financier who developed a reputation as a corporate raider in the 1980s.

Peter Matthiessen, writer.

Thomas Gold, astronomer.

The Wright brothers register their flying machine for a U.S. patent.

Sir Laurence Olivier, actor.

The United States formally recognizes Korea.

The Amnesty Act restores civil rights to Southerners.

The “Great Train Robbery” takes place as seven members of the Reno Gang make off with $98,000 in cash from a train’s safe in Indiana.

Union General Ulysses S. Grant‘s second attack on Vicksburg fails and a siege begins.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author, creator of the Sherlock Holmes series.

U.S. Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner with a cane for Sumner’s earlier condemnation of slavery, which included an insult to Brooks’ cousin, Senator Andrew Butler.

Mary Cassatt, impressionist painter.

Albrecht von Graefe, German eye surgeon, founder of modern opthamology.

Richard Wagner, German composer.

King Henry VI is taken prisoner by the Yorkists at the Battle of St. Albans, during the War of the Roses.

Henry Raspe is elected anti-king by the Rhenish prelates in France.