Today in History

876		Charles the Bald is defeated at the Battle of Andernach.
1690		Belgrade is retaken by the Turks.
1840		King William I of Holland abdicates.
1855		Arrow, a ship flying the British flag, is boarded by Chinese who arrest the crew, thus beginning the Second Chinese War.
1862		The Union is victorious at the Battle of Perryville, the largest Civil War combat to take place in Kentucky.
1871		The Great Chicago Fire begins in southwest Chicago, possibly in a barn owned by Patrick and Katherine O'Leary. Fanned by strong southwesterly winds, the flames raged for more than 24 hours, eventually leveling three and a half square miles and wiping out one-third of the city. Approximately 250 people were killed in the fire; 98,500 people were left homeless; 17,450 buildings were destroyed.
1897		Journalist Charles Henry Dow, founder of the Wall Street Journal, begins charting trends of stocks and bonds.
1900		Maximilian Harden is sentenced to six months in prison for publishing an article critical of the German Kaiser.
1906		Karl Ludwig Nessler first demonstrates a machine in London that puts permanent waves in hair. The client wears a dozen brass curlers, each wearing two pounds, for the six-hour process.
1919		The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives pass the Volstead Prohibition Enforcement Bill.
1922		Lilian Gatlin becomes the first woman pilot to fly across the United States.
1956		Don Larson of the New York Yankees pitched the first perfect game in World Series history against the Brooklyn Dodgers.
1968		U.S. forces in Vietnam launch Operation Sealord, an attack on North Vietnamese supply lines and base areas.