Today in History

Senator Barack Obama of Illinois elected 44th president of the United States, the first African American to hold that position.

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.

Carol Moseley Braun becomes the first African American woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate.

Ronald Reagan is elected the 40th president of the United States.

At the American Embassy in Teheran, Iran, 90 people, including 63 Americans, are taken hostage by militant student followers of Ayatollah Khomeini. The students demand the return of Shah Mohammad Reza Pablavi, who is undergoing medical treatment in New York City.

Sean Combs, rapper, record producer, actor; at various times used the stage names Puff Daddy, P. Diddy and Diddy. He won three Grammys and two MTV Video Music Awards.

Jeff Probst, game show host and executive producer, best known as the host of the US version the reality show Survivor.

Russian troops attack Budapest, Hungary.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected 34th president of the United States.

Laura Welch Bush, wife of US President George W. Bush, she served as First Lady from 2001 to 2009; she used her position to champion education and literacy.

Sir Charles Kuen Kao, Chinese-born physicist known as the “Father of Fiber Optics” and the “Godfather of Broadband”; he shared the 2009 Nobel Prize for Physics.

Nellie Tayloe Ross and Miriam Ferguson are elected first and second women governors (Wyoming and Texas).

Eugene Sledge, US Marine, famous for his memoir of the fighting in the Pacific Theater, With the Old Breed.

The entrance to King Tut’s tomb is discovered.

Art Carney, actor; best known for playing Ed Norton, sidekick to Jackie Gleason’s Ralph Kramden on the TV series The Honeymooners, he received an Academy Award for Best Actor for his starring role in the film Harry and Tonto.

Ruth Handler, businesswoman, toy designer who co-founded Mattel with her husband and created the Barbie doll.

Will Rogers, American actor and writer.

From the main Confederate Army at Chattanooga, Tennessee, Lt. Gen. James Longstreet’s troops are sent northeast to besiege Knoxville.

Florence Nightingale and her nurses arrive in the Crimea.

Abraham Lincoln marries Mary Todd in Springfield, Ill.

Congress agrees to pay a yearly tribute to Tripoli, considering it the only way to protect U.S. shipping.

General Arthur St. Clair, governor of Northwest Territory, is badly defeated by a large Indian army near Fort Wayne.

Following the Russian capture of Berlin, Frederick II of Prussia defeats the Austrians at the Battle of Torgau.

William III and Mary of England wed on William’s birthday.

William III, Prince of Orange, later King of England, Scotland and Ireland.

Christopher Columbus discovers Guadeloupe during his second expedition.

Umar of Arabia is assassinated at Medina and is succeeded as caliph by Uthman.