Today in History

Cyclone Sidr strikes Bangladesh, killing an estimated 5,000 people.

People’s Republic of Bulgaria replaced by a new republican government.

Palestinian National Council proclaims an independent State of Palestine.

Anglo-Irish Agreement signed by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald.

Baby Fae dies 20 days after receiving a baboon heart transplant in Loma Linda, California.

A Syrian peace force takes control of Beirut, Lebanon.

A quarter of a million anti-Vietnam War demonstrators march in Washington, D.C.

In the second day of combat, regiments of the 1st Cavalry Division battle on Landing Zones X-Ray against North Vietnamese forces in the Ia Drang Valley.

Argentina voids all foreign oil contracts.

Cuba threatens to down U.S. planes on reconnaissance flights over its territory.

The first submarine with nuclear missiles, USS George Washington, takes to sea from Charleston, South Carolina.

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev asserts Soviet superiority in missiles, challenging the United States to a rocket-range shooting match.

Newark Airport in New Jersey reopens after closing earlier in the year because of an increase in accidents.

The 17th Paris Air Show opens at the Grand Palais des Champs-Elysees. It is the first show of this kind since World War II.

Daniel Barenboim, Israeli pianist and conductor.

Daniel Pinkwater, author best known for his children’s books and Young Adult fiction (The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death).

Sam Waterston, actor, producer, director (The Killing Fields; TV movie Lincoln; Jack McCoy, Law & Order TV series).

W. C. Clark, blues musician known as the “Godfather of Austin Blues.”.

Eighteen lawsuits are brought against the Tennessee Valley Authority, calling for its dissolution.

General strikes and riots paralyze Madrid, Spain.

Howard Baker, Ameican politician; Senate Majority Leader (1981-85), White House Chief of Staff under Ronald Reagan (1987-88), Ambassador to Japan (2001-05).

It is announced that Dr. Alexis Carrel has discovered white corpuscles.

Forty-one nations open the first League of Nations session in Geneva..

Kerensky flees and Bolsheviks take command in Moscow.

Guy Green, English film director, screenwriter, cinematographer; won Academy Award for cinematography for Great Expectations (1946); received Lifetime Achievement Award from BAFTA (2002) and named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (2004).

M. Metrot takes off in a Voisin biplane from Algiers, making the first manned flight in Africa.

Claus von Stauffenberg, German army officer; a leader in the failed July 20, 1944, assassination attempt against Adolf Hitler.

Curtis LeMay, general in US Army Air Corps and later US Air Force; vice presidential running mate of George Wallace in 1968; credited with planning the strategic bombing campaign against Imperial Japan during WWII.

Erwin Rommel, German field marshal in World War II.

Georgia O’Keefe, American artist.

The American Federation of Labor is founded.

Union Major General William T. Sherman’s troops set fires that destroy much of Atlanta’s industrial district prior to beginning Sherman’s March to the Sea.

Explorer Zebulon Pike discovers the Colorado Peak that bears his name, despite the fact that he didn’t climb it.

Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and their party reach the mouth of the Columbia River, completing their trek to the Pacific.

The Articles of Confederation, instituting perpetual union of the United States of America, are adopted by Congress.

Sir William Hershel, British astronomer who discovered Uranus.

William Pitt the Elder, secretary of state of England whose strategies helped win the Seven Years War.

The Pilgrim Fathers, who have settled in New Plymouth, buy out their London investors.

The explorer Francisco Pizarro enters Cuzco, Peru.

Swiss soldiers ambush and slaughter invading Austrians in the battle of Morgarten.