Today in History

Today in History

28 BC The Temple of Apollo is dedicated on the Palatine Hill in Rome.

1470 Henry VI of England is restored to the throne.

1708 A Russian army commanded by Peter the Great defeats the Swedes at the Battle of Lesnaya. It will go down as one of the major battles of the Great Northern War.

1760 Austrian and Russian troops enter Berlin and begin burning structures and looting.

1779 The Luddite riots begin in Manchester, England in reaction to machinery for spinning cotton being installed.

1781 Americans begin shelling the British surrounded at Yorktown.

1863 Confederate cavalry raiders return to Chattanooga after attacking Union General William Rosecrans‘ supply and communication lines all around east Tennessee.

1888 The Washington Monument, designed by Robert Mills, opens to the public.

1914 The Germans take Antwerp, Belgium, after 12day siege.

1934 In Marseilles, a Macedonian revolutionary associated with Croat terrorists in Hungary assassinates King Alexander of Yugoslavia and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou. The two had been on a tour of European capitals in quest of an alliance against Nazi Germany. The assassinations bring the threat of war between Yugoslavia and Hungary, but confrontation is prevented by the League of Nations.

1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt requests congressional approval for arming U.S. merchant ships.

1950 U.N. forces, led by the First Cavalry Division, cross the 38th parallel in South Korea and begin attacking northward towards the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.

1983 The president of South Korea, Doo Hwan Chun, with his cabinet and other top officials are scheduled to lay a wreath on a monument in Rangoon, Burma, when a bomb explodes. Hwan had not yet arrived and so escaped injury, but 17 Koreans–including the deputy prime minister and two other cabinet members–and two Burmese are killed. North Korea is blamed.

1999 Last flight of the Lockheed SR-71 “Blackbird” stealth reconnaissance aircraft takes place.

2006 North Korea reportedly tests its first nuclear device.

Born

1837 Francis Parker, educator and founder of progressive elementary schools.

1859 Alfred Dreyfus, French artillery officer who was falsely accused of giving French military secrets to foreign powers.

1873 Charles Rudolph Walgreen, “the father of the modern drugstore.”

1879 Max von Laue, German physicist.

1899 Bruce Catton, U.S. historian and journalist, famous for his works on the Civil War.

1909 Jacques Tati, French actor and director.

1940 John Lennon, musician, singer, songwriter; one of the Beatles (“Imagine,” “Give Peace a Chance”).

1941 Brian Lamb, journalist, founder of the C-SPAN cable network.

1941 Trent Lott, politician, Republican Senate Majority Whip (1995-96), Senate Majority Leader

(1996–2001) and Minority Leader (2001-02); resigned during controversy over making remarks that praised Strom Thurmond‘s 1948 presidential campaign that had called for preservation of racial segregation.

1948 Jackson Browne, singer, songwriter, musician, producer; member of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (“Running on Empty,” “Take It Easy”).

1974 Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, writer, radio host; prominent figure in Modern Orthodox Judaism.

1979 Chris O’Dowd, comedian, actor (The IT Crowd and Family Tree TV series, Bridesmaids).

History