Today in History

1620   The Pilgrims sight Cape Cod.
1828   In Vienna, Composer Franz Schubert dies of syphilis at age 31.
1861   Julia Ward Howe writes "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" while visiting Union troops near Washington.
1863   Lincoln delivers the "Gettysburg Address" at the dedication of the National Cemetery at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg.
1885   Bulgarians, led by Stefan Stambolov, repulse a larger Serbian invasion force at Slivinitza.
1873   James Reed and two accomplices rob the Watt Grayson family of $30,000 in the Choctaw Nation.
1897   The Great "City Fire" in London.
1905   100 people drown in the English Channel as the steamer Hilda sinks.
1911   New York receives first Marconi wireless transmission from Italy.
1915   The Allies ask China to join the entente against the Central Powers.
1923   The Oklahoma State Senate ousts Governor Walton for anti-Ku Klux Klan measures.
1926   Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Politburo in the Soviet Union.
1942   Soviet forces take the offensive at Stalingrad.
1949   Prince Ranier III is crowned 30th Monarch of Monaco.
1952   Scandinavian Airlines opens a commercial route from Canada to Europe.
1969   Apollo 12 touches down on the moon.
1973   New York stock market takes sharpest drop in 19 years.
1976   Patty Hearst is released from prison on $1.5 million bail.
1981   U.S. Steel agrees to pay $6.3 million for Marathon Oil.
1985   US President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, meet for the first time.
1985   In the largest civil verdict in US history, Pennzoil wins $10.53 billion judgement against Texaco.
1990   Pop duo Milli Vanilli are stripped of their Grammy Award after it is learned they did not sing on their award-winning Girl You Know Its True album.
1996   Canada's Lt. Gen. Maurice Baril arrives in Africa to lead a multinational force policing Zaire.
1998   US House of Representatives begins impeachment hearings against President Bill Clinton.
2010   New Zealand suffers its worst mining disaster since 1914 when the first of four explosions occurs at the Pike River Mine; 29 people are killed.