Today in History

303		Emperor Diocletian orders the general persecution of Christians in Rome.
1516		The Hapsburg Charles I succeeds Ferdinand in Spain.
1540		Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado begins his unsuccessful search for the fabled Seven Cities of Gold in the American Southwest.
1574		The 5th War of Religion breaks out in France.
1615		The Estates-General in Paris is dissolved, having been in session since October 1614.
1778		Baron von Steuben joins the Continental Army at Valley Forge.
1821		Poet John Keats dies of tuberculosis at the age of 25.
1836		The Alamo is besieged by Santa Anna.
1846		The Liberty Bell tolls for the last time, to mark George Washington's birthday.
1847		Forces led by Zachary Taylor defeat the Mexicans at the Battle of Buena Vista.
1854		Great Britain officially recognizes the independence of the Orange Free State.
1861		Texas becomes the seventh state to secede from the Union.
1885		John Lee survives three attempts to hang him in Exeter Prison, as the trap fails to open.
1898		Writer Emile Zola is imprisoned in France for his letter J'accuse in which he accuses the French government of anti-semitism and the wrongful imprisonment of army captain Alfred Dreyfus.
1901		Britain and Germany agree on a boundary between German East Africa and Nyasaland.
1904		Japan guarantees Korean sovereignty in exchange for military assistance.
1916		Secretary of State Lansing hints that the U.S. may have to abandon the policy of avoiding "entangling foreign alliances".
1921		An airmail plane sets a record of 33 hours and 20 minutes from San Francisco to New York.
1926		President Calvin Coolidge opposes a large air force, believing it would be a menace to world peace.
1936		In Russia, an unmanned balloon rises to a record height of 25 miles.
1938		Twelve Chinese fighter planes drop bombs on Japan.
1942		A Japanese submarine shells an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California, the first Axis bombs to hit American soil.
1944		American bombers strike the Marianas Islands bases, only 1,300 miles from Tokyo.
1945		Eisenhower opens a large offensive in the Rhineland.
1945		U.S. Marines plant an American flag atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima.
1946		Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita is hanged in Manila, the Philippines, for war crimes.
1947		Several hundred Nazi organizers are arrested in Frankfurt by U.S. and British forces.
1950		New York's Metropolitan Museum exhibits a collection of Hapsburg art. The first showing of this collection in the U.S.
1954		Mass innoculation begins as Salk's polio vaccine is given to children for first time.
1955		Eight nations meet in Bangkok for the first SEATO council.
1960		Whites join Negro students in a sit-in at a Winston-Salem, N.C. Woolworth store.
1964		The U.S. and Britain recognize the new Zanzibar government.
1967		American troops begin the largest offensive of the war, near the Cambodian border.
1972		Black activist Angela Davis is released from jail where she was held for kidnapping , conspiracy and murder.
1991		French forces unofficially start the Persian Gulf ground war by crossing the Saudi-Iraqi border.