Today in History____________

Today in History____________

History

1236 Henry III marries Eleanor of Provence.

1526 Francis of France, held captive by Charles V for a year, signs the Treaty of Madrid, giving up most of his claims in France and Italy.

1797 Napoleon Bonaparte defeats the Austrians at Rivoli in northern Italy.

1858 Emperor Napoleon and Empress Eugenie escape unhurt after an Italian assassin throws a bomb at their carriage as they travel to the Paris Opera.

1864 Confederate President Jefferson Davis writes to General Joseph E. Johnson, observing that troops may need to be sent to Alabama or Mississippi.

1911 The USS Arkansas, the largest U.S. battleship, is launched from the yards of the New York Shipbuilding Company.

1915 The French abandon five miles of trenches to the Germans near Soissons.

1916 British authorities seize German attaché Franz von Papen’s financial records confirming espionage activities in the U.S.

1917 A Provisional Parliament is established in Poland.

1942 President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders all aliens in the U.S. to register with the government.

1943 Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Charles DeGaulle meet at Casablanca to discuss the direction of the war.

1943 Italian occupation authorities refuse to deport Jews living in their territories in France.

1969 A blast on the U.S. carrier Enterprise in the Pacific results in 24 dead and 85 injured.

1980 The United Nations votes 104-18 to deplore the Soviet aggression in Afghanistan.

2000 A UN tribunal sentences 5 Bosnian Croats to prison for up to 25 years; they were charged with killing some 100 Muslims in a Bosnian village in 1993.

2004 The Republic of Georgia restores the “five cross flag” as its national flag after some 500 years of disuse.

2005 Huygens, a probe, lands on Saturn’s moon Titan.

2010 Yemen declares war on the al-Qaeda terrorist group.

2011 Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, former president of Tunisia, flees to Saudi Arabia after a series of demonstrations against his regime.

Born

1730 William Whipple, a signatory of the Declaration of Independence.

1741 Benedict Arnold, American colonial General turned traitor.

1875 Dr. Albert Schweitzer, French theologian who set up a native hospital in French Equatorial Africa in 1913.

1919 Andy Rooney, American humorist; author and television personality (60 Minutes).

1940 Julian Bond, civil rights leader and Georgia state senator.

1944 Nina Totenberg, journalist; legal affairs correspondent for National Public Radio.

1947 Taylor Branch, author, historian; best known for his America in the King Years trilogy chronicling the life of Martin Luther King Jr.

1948 T Bone Burnett (Joseph Henry Burnett), musician, songwriter, Grammy-winning producer (O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack).

1952 Maureen Dowd, New York Times columnist, author; won Pulitzer Prize for her series on the Monica Lewinsky scandal during the Clinton administration.

1968 LLCool J (James Todd Smith), influential rapper (“I’m Bad”); actor (NCIS: Los Angeles TV series).