Today in History

Pro-democracy Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng released from prison after 18 years, for health reasons.

Eric Lawes, while using a metal detector to search for a friend’s lost hammer near Hoxne, Suffolk, England, discovers the Hoxne Hoard, the largest hoard of Roman silver and gold ever found in Britain, and the largest collection of 4th and 5th century coins found anywhere within the bounds of the former Roman Empire

Salvadoran Army death squad kills six Jesuit priests and two others at Jose Simeon Canas University.

The space shuttle Columbia completes its first operational flight.

American Airlines is fined $500,000 for improper DC-10 maintenance.

U.S. planes hit Haiphong shipyard in North Vietnam for the first time.

In the last day of the fighting at Landing Zone X-Ray, regiments of the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division repulse NVA forces in the Ia Drang Valley.

After the integration of two all-white schools, 2,000 whites riot in the streets of New Orleans.

The Big Four talks, taking place in Geneva on German reunification, end in failure.

The United States joins in the condemnation of Israel for its raid on Jordan.

Peter Keefe, TV producer (Voltron); credited with introducing American audiences to Japanese animation.

President Harry S Truman rejects four-power talks on Berlin until the blockade is removed.

Eighty-eight German scientists, holding Nazi secrets, arrive in the United States.

Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, Lebanese Twelver Shi’a scholar; sometimes called the “spiritual mentor” of Hezbollah.

Chinua Achebe, Nigerian novelist.

Metered mail is born in Stamford, Connecticut with the first Pitney Bowes postage meter.

Edward Chapman, spy; after becoming a spy for Nazi Germany, he became a double agent serving his native England.

Swann’s Way, the first volume of Marcel Proust’s 7-part novel Remembrance of Things Past, is published.

Burgess Meredith, actor; the first man to win the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor twice, and a winner of several Emmys, he is considered one of the most accomplished actors of the 20th century.

A cartoon appears in the Washington Star, prompting the Teddy Bear Craze, after President Teddy Roosevelt refused to kill a captive bear tied up for him to shoot during a hunting trip to Mississippi.

King Behanzin of Dahomey (now Benin), leads soldiers against the French.

George S. Kaufman, American playwright and collaborator with Moss Hart (You Can’t Take it With You , The Man Who Came to Dinner).

W.C. Handy, father of the blues, famous for “St. Louis Blues.”

Union General William T. Sherman departs Atlanta and begins his “March to the Sea.”

General Zachary Taylor takes Saltillo, Mexico.

Louis-Honore Frechette, Canadian poet.

Trader William Becknell reaches Santa Fe, N.M., on the route that will become known as the Santa Fe Trail.

The British announce a blockade of Long Island Sound, leaving only the New England coast open to shipping.

John Bright, British Victorian radical who founded the Anti-Corn Law League.

British seamen board the U.S. frigate Baltimore and impress a number of crewmen as alleged deserters, a practice that contributed to the War of 1812.

Tiberius Claudius Nero, Roman Emperor.