Today in History

Yemeni President Ali Abullah Saleh signs a deal to to transfer power to the vice president, in exchange for legal immunity; the agreement came after 11 months of protests.

In the second-deadliest day of sectarian violence in Iraq since the beginning of the 2003 war, 215 people are killed and nearly 260 injured by bombs in Sadr City.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf elected president of Liberia; she is the first woman to lead an African nation.

The first Smartphone, IBM Simon, introduced at COMDEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The first all-woman expedition to South Pole sets off from Antarctica on the part of a 70-day trip; the group includes 12 Russians, 3 Americans and 1 Japanese.

US Pres. Ronald Reagan signs top secret directive giving the CIA authority to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

Ishmael Beah, authored A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, a memoir of his time as a Sierra Leonean child solider in that country’s civil war.

Four men hijack an American plane, with 87 passengers, from Miami to Cuba.

John Schnatter, businessman; founded Papa John’s Pizza.

North Korea signs 10-year aid pact with Peking.

Wartime meat and butter rationing ends in the United States.

Andrew Goodman, civil rights activist; murdered by Ku Klux Klan in 1964 near Philadelphia, Miss.

The film Casablanca premieres in New York City.

U.S. troops move into Dutch Guiana to guard the bauxite mines.

The United States abandons the American embassy in Madrid, Spain, which is engulfed by civil war.

The United States and Great Britain agree on a 5-5-3 naval ratio, with both countries allowed to build five million tons of naval ships while Japan can only build three. Japan will denounce the treaty.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt recalls the American ambassador from Havana, Cuba, and urges stability in the island nation.

Gloria Whelan, poet, author primarily known for children’s and young-adult fiction; her novel Homeless Bird won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature in 2000.

President Warren G. Harding signs the Willis Campell Act, better known as the anti-beer bill. It forbids doctors to prescribe beer or liquor for medicinal purposes.

The Wright brothers form a million-dollar corporation for the commercial manufacture of their airplanes.

Russo-German talks break down because of Russia’s insistence to consult France.

Italian tenor Enrico Caruso makes his American debut in a Metropolitan Opera production of Verdi’s Rigoletto.

Willie “The Lion” Smith, jazz and ragtime pianist.

Adolph Arthur “Harpo” Marx, American comedian, one of the Marx brothers.

Boris Karloff, film actor most famous for his role as the monster in the movie Frankenstein.

Ernest King, commander-in-chief of the U.S. fleet who designed the United States’ winning strategy in World War II.

The Battle of Chattanooga, one of the most decisive battles of the American Civil War, begins (also in Tennessee).

Franklin Pierce, hero of the American war with Mexico and 14th president of the United States.

John Hancock is elected president of the Continental Congress for the second time.

The city of Seville, Spain, surrenders to Ferdinand III of Castile after a two-year siege.