Today in History

1622		Indians attack a group of colonists in the James River area of Virginia, killing 350 residents.
1630		The first legislation prohibiting gambling is enacted in Boston.
1664		Charles II gives large tracks of land from west of the Connecticut River to the east of Delaware Bay in North America to his brother James, the Duke of York.
1719		Frederick William abolishes serfdom on crown property in Prussia.
1765		The Stamp Act is passed, the first direct British tax on the American colonists.
1775		British statesman Edmund Burke makes a speech in the House of Commons, urging the government to adopt a policy of reconciliation with America.
1790		Thomas Jefferson becomes the first U.S. Secretary of State.
1794		Congress passes laws prohibiting slave trade with foreign countries although slavery remains legal in the United States.
1834		Horace Greeley publishes New Yorker, a weekly literary and news magazine and forerunner of Harold Ross' more successful The New Yorker.
1901		Japan proclaims that it is determined to keep Russia from encroaching on Korea.
1904		The first color photograph is published in the London Daily Illustrated Mirror.
1907		Russians troops complete the evacuation of Manchuria in the face of advancing Japanese forces.
1915		A German Zepplin makes a night raid on Paris railway stations.
1919		The first international airline service is inaugurated on a weekly schedule between Paris and Brussels.
1933		President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill legalizing the sale and possession of beer and wine.
1935		Persia is renamed Iran.
1946		First U.S. built rocket to leave the Earth's atmosphere reaches a 50-mile height.
1948		The United States announces a land reform plan for Korea.
1954		The London gold market reopens for the first time since 1939.
1968		President Lyndon Johnson names General William Westmoreland as Army Chief of Staff.
1972		The U.S. Senate passes the Equal Rights Amendment. The amendment fails to achieve ratification.
1974		The Viet Cong propose a new truce with the United States and South Vietnam, which includes general elections.
1990		A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, finds Captain Hazelwood not guilty in the Valdez oil spill.