Today in History_______________________________________

Today in History_______________________________________

History

1719 Philip V of Spain declares war on France.

1776 Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense, a scathing attack on King George Ill’s reign over the colonies and a call for complete independence.

1792 The Ottomans sign a treaty with the Russians ending a five-year war.

1793 Jean Pierre Blanchard makes the first balloon flight in North America.

1861 Southern shellfire stops the Union supply ship Star of the West from entering Charleston Harbor on her way to Fort Sumter.

1861 Mississippi secedes from the Union.

1908 Count Zeppelin announces plans for his airship to carry 100 passengers.

1909 A Polar exploration team lead by Ernest Shackleton reaches 88 degrees, 23 minutes south longitude, 162 degrees east latitude. They are 97 nautical miles short of the South Pole, but the weather is too severe to continue.

1912 Colonel Theodore Roosevelt announces that he will run for president if asked.

1915 Pancho Villa signs a treaty with the United States, halting border conflicts.

1924 Ford Motor Co. stock is valued at nearly $1 billion.

1943 Soviet planes drop leaflets on the surrounded Germans in Stalingrad requesting their surrender with humane terms. The Germans refuse.

1945 U.S. troops land on Luzon, in the Philippines, 107 miles from Manila.

1947 French General Ledere breaks off all talks with Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh.

1952 Jackie Robinson becomes the highest paid player in Brooklyn Dodger history.

1964 U.S. forces kill six Panamanian students protesting in the canal zone.

1974 Cambodian Government troops open a drive to avert an insurgent attack on Phnom Penh.

1992 The Assembly of the Serb People in Bosnia and Herzegovina proclaims the creation of a new state within Yugoslavia, the Republika Srpska.

1996 A raid by Chechen separatists in the city of Kizlyar turns into a hostage crisis involving thousands of civilians.

2005 Mahmoud Abbas wins an election to replace Yasser Arafat as President of the Palestinian National Authority.

2005 The Comprehensive Peace Agreement to end the Second Sudanese Civil War is signed by the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement.

2007 Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, unveils the first iPhone.

Born

1554 Gregory XV, Roman Catholic Pope.

1890 Karel Capek, Czech writer and playwright, best remembered for his play R.U.R., which contained the first use of the word “robot.”

1913 Richard Nixon, the 37th President of the United States and the first President to resign from office.

1941 Joan Baez, American folk singer and activist.

1944 Jimmy Page, musician, songwriter, producer; a member of The Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin and other bands.

1963 Michael Everson, American and Irish linguist; a leading expert in the computer encoding of scripts.

1967 Dave Matthews, singer, songwriter, guitarist, actor; the leader of The Dave Matthews Band and Dave Matthews & Friends.

1982 Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (Catherine Elizabeth “Kate” Middleton); wife of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge. Upon William’s assumption of the British throne, the Duchess would become queen consort.