Today in History

1220		After promising to go to the aid of the Fifth Crusade within nine months, Frederick II is crowned emperor by Pope Honorius III.
1542		New laws are passed in Spain giving Indians in America protection against enslavement.
1757		The Austrian army defeats the Prussians at Breslau in the Seven Years War.
1847		In New York, the Astor Place Opera House, the city's first operatic theater, is opened.
1902		A fire causes considerable damage to the unfinished Williamsburg bridge in New York.
1915		The Anglo-Indian army, led by British General Sir Charles Townshend, attacks a larger Turkish force under General Nur-ud-Din at Ctesiphon, Iraq, but is repulsed.
1919		A Labor conference committee in the United States urges an eight-hour workday and a 48-hour week.
1928		British King George is confined to bed with a congested lung; the queen is to take over duties.
1935		Pan Am inaugurates the first transpacific airmail service from San Francisco to Manila.
1936		1,200 soldiers are killed in a battle between the Japanese and Mongolians in China.
1942		Soviet troops complete the encirclement of the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad.
1948		Ho Chi Minh's Democratic Republic of Vietnam requests admittance to the UN.
1963		Lee Harvey Oswald assassinates President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. Lyndon B. Johnson becomes president.
1964		Almost 40,000 people pay tribute to John F. Kennedy at Arlington Cemetery on the first anniversary of his death.
1973		Great Britain announces a plan for moderate Protestants and Catholics to share power in Northern Ireland.
1980		Eighteen Communist Party secretaries in 49 provinces are ousted from Poland.
1982		President Ronald Reagan calls for defense-pact deployment of the MX missile.
1986		Justice Department finds memo in Lt. Col. Oliver North's office on the transfer of $12 million to Contras of Nicaragua from Iranian arms sale.