Today in History

392		Theodosius of Rome passes legislation prohibiting all pagan worship in the empire.
1226		Louis IX succeeds Louis VIII as king of France.
1576		The 17 provinces of the Netherlands form a federation to maintain peace.
1620		The King of Bohemia is defeated at the Battle of Prague.
1685		Fredrick William of Brandenburg issues the Edict of Potsdam, offering Huguenots refuge.
1793		The Louvre opens in Paris. But wasn't it already a Palace and it merely opens to the people?
1861		Charles Wilkes seizes Confederate commissioners John Slidell and James M. Mason from the British ship Trent.
1864		President Abraham Lincoln is re-elected in the first wartime election in the United States.
1887		Doc Holliday, who fought on the side of the Earp brothers during the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral 6 years earlier, dies of tuberculosis in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.
1889		Montana becomes the 41st state of the Union.
1900		Theodore Dresier's first novel Sister Carrie is published by Doubleday, but is recalled from stores shortly due to public sentiment.
1904		President Theodore Roosevelt is elected president of the United States. He had been vice president until the shooting death of President William McKinley.
1910		The Democrats prevail in congressional elections for the first time since 1894.
1923		Adolf Hitler attempts a coup in Munich, the "Beer Hall Putsch," and proclaims himself chancellor and Ludendorff dictator. .
1932		Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected 32nd president of the United States.
1938		Crystla Bird Fauset of Pennsylvania, becomes the first African-American woman to be elected to a state legislature.
1942		The United States and Great Britain invade Axis-occupied North Africa.
1960		John F. Kennedy is elected 35th president, defeating Republican candidate Richard Nixon in the closest election, by popular vote, since 1880.
1965		Vietnam War, Operation Hump: US 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team ambushed by over 1,200 Viet Cong in Bien Hoa Province. Nearby, in the Gang Toi Hills, a company of the Royal Australian Regiment also engaged Viet Cong forces.
1966		Republican Edward Brooke of Massachusetts becomes the first African American elected to the Senate in 85 years.
1977		Greek archaeologist Manolis Andronikos discovers what is believed to be the tomb of Philip II of Macedon at Vergina in northern Greece.
1983		Wilson B. Goode is elected as the first black mayor of the city of Philadelphia.
1987		A dozen people are killed and over 60 wounded when the IRA detonates a bomb during a Remembrance Day ceremony in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, honoring those who had died in wars involving British forces.
2000		Dispute begins over US presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore; Supreme Court ruling on Dec. 12 results in a 271-266 electoral victory for Bush.
2004		More than 10,000 US troops and a few Iraqi army units besiege an insurgent stronghold at Fallujah.