Today in History

362   Emperor Julian issues an edict banning Christians from teaching in Syria.  
1579   Sir Francis Drake claims San Francisco Bay for England.  
1775   The British take Bunker Hill outside of Boston, after a costly battle.  
1799   Napoleon Bonaparte incorporates Italy into his empire.  
1848   Austrian General Alfred Windischgratz crushes a Czech uprising in Prague.  
1854   The Red Turban revolt breaks out in Guangdong, China.  
1856   The Republican Party opens its first national convention in Philadelphia.  
1861   President Abraham Lincoln witnesses Dr. Thaddeus Lowe demonstrate the use of a hot-air balloon. 1863   On the way to Gettysburg, Union and Confederate forces skirmish at Point of Rocks, Maryland. 1872   George M. Hoover begins selling whiskey in Dodge City, Kansas–a town which had previously been "dry."  
1876   General George Crook's command is attacked and bested on the Rosebud River by 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne under the leadership of Crazy Horse.  
1912   The German Zeppelin SZ 111 burns in its hanger in Friedrichshafen.  
1913   U.S. Marines set sail from San Diego to protect American interests in Mexico.  
1917   The Russian Duma meets in secret session in Petrograd and votes for an immediate Russian offensive against the German Army.  
1924   The Fascist militia marches into Rome.  
1926   Spain threatens to quit the League of Nations if Germany is allowed to join.  
1930   The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Bill becomes law, placing the highest tariff on imports to the United States. 1931   British authorities in China arrest Indochinese Communist leader Ho Chi Minh.  
1932   The U.S. Senate defeats the Bonus Bill as 10,000 veterans mass around the Capitol.  
1940   The Soviet Union occupies Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.  
1942   Yank a weekly magazine for the U.S. armed services, begins publication.  
1944   French troops land on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.  
1950   Surgeon Richard Lawler performs the first kidney transplant operation in Chicago.  
1953   Soviet tanks fight thousands of Berlin workers rioting against the East German government.  
1963   The U.S. Supreme Court bans the required reading of the Lord's prayer and Bible in public schools. 1965   27 B-52s hit Viet Cong outposts, but lose two planes in South Vietnam.  
1970   North Vietnamese troops cut the last operating rail line in Cambodia.  
1972   Five men are arrested for burglarizing Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.
1994   Millions of Americans watch former football player O.J. Simpson–facing murder charges–drive his Ford Bronco through Los Angeles, followed by police.