Today in History

1380 - King Charles VI of France crowned at age 12
1524 - Francisco Pizarro begins his 1st great expedition, near Colombia
1666 - Samuel Pepys reports on 1st blood transfusion (between dogs)
1680 - Gottfried Kirch discovers the Great Comet of 1680 (Kirch's Comet/Newton's Comet)
1732 - 1st US professional librarian, Louis Timothee, hired in Phila
1832 - 1st streetcar (horse-drawn) (John Mason) debuts in NYC; fare 12 cents rode on 4th Avenue between Prince and 14th Sts
1833 - Charles Darwin departs by horse to Montevideo
1834 - William Thomson enters Glasgow University at 10 yrs 4 months
1888 - St Andrews Golf Club, Yonkers NY, opens with just 6 holes
1888 - USC Trojans (then Methodists) play their 1st football game
1889 - New York World reporter Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) began her attempt to surpass fictitious journey of Jules Verne's Phileas Fogg by traveling around world in less than 80 days She succeeded, finishing the trip in January in 72 days and 6 hours
1896 - Power plant at Niagara Falls begins operation
1908 - Albert Einstein presents his quantum theory of light
1910 - 1st airplane flight from deck of a ship, Norfolk, Va
1935 - Nazis deprive German Jews of their citizenship
1942 - Last Vichy-French troops in Algeria surrender
1957 - The Appalachian Meeting outside Binghamton, New York is raided by law enforcement, and many high level Mafia figures are arrested.
1960 - OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries), forms
1965 - US government sends 90,000 soldiers to Vietnam
1968 - "National Turn in Your Draft Card Day" features draft card burning