Today in History

The largest Chapter 11 bankruptcy in US history is filed by Lehman Brothers financial services firm.

National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman announces a lockout of the players union.

MCI WorldCom begins operations after a landmark merger between World Com and MCI Communications.

France announces it will send 4,000 troops to join those of other nations assembling in the Persian Gulf to protect Saudi Arabia and force Iraq’s dictator Saddam Hussein to withdraw troops from occupied Kuwait.

Prince Harry of Wales, Prince of Wales; currently fourth in line of succession to the British throne.

Menachem Begin resigns as premier of Israel.

Sandra Day O’Connor is unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee to become the first female justice on the US Supreme Court.

Tom Hardy, actor; won a BAFTA Rising Star Award for Inception.

The environmental group Greenpeace is founded.

The USSR launches Zond 5, which becomes the first spaceship to orbit the moon and reenter Earth’s atmosphere.

US President Lyndon Johnson urges Congress to adopt gun control legislation in the wake of Charles Whitman’s sniper attack from the University of Texas’s Texas Tower; in all, Whitman shot and killed 15 people before being shot dead himself by an Austin police officer.

Four young African-American girls are killed by the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama.

Dan Marino, American football pro quarterback who led Miami Dolphins to 10 playoffs in his 17-year career and set many NFL passing records.

Nikita Khrushchev becomes first Soviet leader to visit the US.

Wendie Jo Sperber, actress (I Wanna Hold Your Hand, Back to the Future).

U.N. Forces, lead by the U.S. Marine Corps, invade occupied Korea at the port of Inchon. Considered the greatest amphibious attack in history, it is the zenith of General Douglas MacArthur‘s career.

Oliver Stone, film director and screenwriter (Platoon, JFK).

Jesse Norman, soprano.

The Polish submarine Orzel arrives in Tallinn, Estonia, after escaping the German invasion of Poland.

Prime Minister of England Neville Chamberlain flies to Germany to discuss the future of Czechoslovakia with Adolf Hitler.

In Berlin, the Reich under Adolf Hitler adopts the swastika as the national flag.

Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming discovers, by accident, that the mold penicillin has an antibiotic effect.

Bobby Short, singer and pianist.

Armored tanks are introduced by the British during the Battle of the Somme.

President Woodrow Wilson orders the Punitive Expedition out of Mexico. The Expedition, headed by General John Pershing, had been searching for Pancho Villa, a Mexican revolutionary.

Sir Howard Bailey, British engineer who gave his name to a prefabricated bridge used extensively during World War II.

Jean Renoir, French film director (Grand Illusion, The Rules of the Game).

The Dalton gang holds up a train and takes $2,500 at Wagoner, Oklahoma.

Claude McKay, poet and novelist, part of the Harlem Renaissance.

Robert Benchley, humorist.

Confederates capture Harpers Ferry, securing the rear of Robert E. Lee‘s forces in Maryland.

The Butterfield Overland Mail Company begins delivering mail from St. Louis to San Francisco. The company’s motto is: “Remember, boys, nothing on God’s earth must stop the United States mail!”

William Howard Taft, 26th president of the United States (1909-1913).

James Fenimore Cooper, novelist whose works include The Pioneers and Last of the Mohicans.

An alliance between Britain, Prussia and the Netherlands is ratified at the Hague.

The British occupy Manhattan.

The Spanish Armada, which attempted to invade England, is destroyed by a British fleet.