Today in History

546 - Gothic War (535-554): The Ostrogoths of King Totila conquer Rome by bribing the Byzantine garrison.
920 - Romanos I is crowned as co-emperor of the underage Emperor Constantine VII.
942 - Assassination of William I Longsword, 2nd Duke of Normandy.
1398 - Timur (Tamerlane) captures and sacks Delhi, defeating Sultan Nasir-u Din Mehmud's armies which include elephants
1526 - Ferdinand of Austria chosen as King of Bohemia
1572 - Spanish army begins fires in Haarlem Netherlands
1586 - Emperor Go-Yozei becomes Emperor of Japan.
1587 - The Earl Leicester's army leaves Netherlands
1637 - Shimabara Rebellion: Japanese peasants led by Amakusa Shiro rise against daimyo Matsukura Shigeharu.
1638 - French/Swedish troops occupy Breisach on the Rhine
1718 - France, Britain and Austria declare war on Spain.
1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlie's army retreats to Scotland
1777 - France recognizes independence of British colonies in America
1777 - George Washington's army returns to Valley Forge, Pa
1788 - Russian army of Grigorij Potemkin occupies Ocharov
1790 - Aztec calendar stone discovered in Mexico City
1791 - NYC traffic regulation creates 1st 1-way street
1792 - Opening of 1st legislative assembly of Lower Canada in Quebec city
1798 - 1st impeachment trial against a US senator (Wm Blount, TN) begins
1807 - France issues the Milan Decree, which confirms the Continental System.
1819 - Congress of Angostura establishes Colombia's independence from Spain
1821 - Kentucky abolishes debtors' prisons
1832 - HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin sails in Strait Le Maire
1845 - German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt arrives in Port Essington after a nearly 4,800 km (3,000 mi) overland journey to explore Australia's Northern Territory
1852 - 1st Hawaiian cavalry organized
1860 - Anaheim Township created in Los Angeles County
1862 - General Ulysses S. Grant issues order #11, expelling Jews from Tennessee
1865 - Franz Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony" premieres
1875 - Violent bread riots in Montreal
1885 - France declares Madagascar a protectorate
1887 - Georges Feydeau's "Tailleur Pour Dames" premieres in Paris
1892 - Tchaikovski's ballet "Casse-noisette" premieres in St Petersburg
1893 - Russia ratifies Double Alliance with France
1895 - Anti-Saloon League of America formed, Washington, DC
1895 - George Brownell patents a machine to make paper twine (Mass)
1900 - 1st prize of 100,00 francs offered for communications with extraterrestrials. Martians excluded-considered too easy
1900 - New Ellis Island Immigration station completed costing $1.5 million
1902 - Frank Wedekind's "Der Erdgeist" premieres in Berlin
1903 - At 10:35 AM, 1st sustained motorized aircraft flight (Orville Wright)
1907 - Ugyen Wangchuck became 1st hereditary king of Bhutan
1908 - In Turkey, the new parliament convenes, with reformist Young Turks as the majority
1909 - Leopold II, king of Belgium, buried in Brussels
1914 - Austrian troops beat Russians in Limanova Poland
1914 - Great Britain declares Egypt a protectorate
1914 - Jews are expelled from Tel Aviv by Turkish authorities
1919 - Austria parliament approves 8-hour day
1920 - British Empire receives League of Nations mandate to Nauru
1920 - Japan receives League of Nations mandate over Pacific islands
1920 - South Africa receives League of Nations mandate over SW Africa
1922 - Last British troops leave Irish Free State
1923 - Greek king George II overthrown by army/republic
1924 - 1st US diesel electric locomotive enters service, Bronx, NY
1925 - Col William "Billy" Mitchell court-martialed for insubordination
1925 - Russia & Turkey sign non-aggression pact
1926 - German Marx government falls due to cooperation with red army
1926 - Lithuanian military state under gen Augustine Woldemaras
1926 - Antanas Smetona assumes power in Lithuania as the ‎1926 coup d'état‎ is successful.
1927 - US sub 'S-4' sinks after collision kills all 34 aboard
1933 - Spain's 2nd government of Lerroux forms
1933 - NFL starts official stats as Bears beat Giants 23-21 in champ game
1935 - First flight of the Douglas DC-3 airplane.
1936 - Ventriloquist Edgar Bergen & dummy Charlie McCarthy, appear on TV
1938 - Discovery of nuclear fission using uranium by Otto Hahn and his assistant Fritz Strassmann
1938 - Utrecht Central Station destroyed by fire
1939 - German pocket battleship Graf Spee scuttled by its crew off Uruguay
1940 - British troops occupy Sollum, Egypt
1941 - Dutch & Australian troops lands on Portuguese Timor
1941 - German submarine U-31 sunk
1941 - German troops led by Rommel begin retreating in North Africa
1941 - World War II: Beginning of the Siege of Sebastopol.
1942 - Allies in London sentence German war criminals
1943 - Transport 63 departs with French Jews to nazi-Germany
1944 - Green Bay Packers win NFL championship
1944 - M-Ocean View streetcar resumes service & is extended to Market St
1944 - US Army announces end of excluding Japanese-Americans from West Coast, detainees released.
1944 - US destroyers sink in storm off Philippines, 790 killed
1946 - US V-2 rocket reaches 183 km, White Sands Proving Grounds, NM
1947 - NY struck by a blizzard, resulting with 27" of snow
1949 - "Regina" closes at 46th St Theater NYC after 86 performances
1949 - Burma recognizes People's Republic of China
1951 - Dutch Communist Party members forbidden to be civil servants
1953 - Dmitri Shostakovitch's 10th Symphony premieres in Leningrad
1953 - FCC approves RCA's black & white-compatible color TV specifications
1954 - 1st fully automated railroad freight yard (Gary, Indiana)
1957 - US successfully test-fires Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile
1957 - The last episode of The Nat King Cole Show airs on NBC due to lack of national sponsorship
1959 - "On The Beach" is 1st film to premiere on both sides of Iron Curtain
1959 - 1st movie opening simultaneously in major cities (On The Beach)
1960 - "La Plume de Ma Tante" closes at Royale Theater NYC after 835 performances
1960 - "Take Me Along" closes at Shubert Theater NYC after 448 performances
1960 - Pablo Casals' oratorio "El Pesebrio" premieres
1961 - Disgruntled employee set fire to a circus tent in Niteroi Brazil
1961 - India seizes Goa & 2 other Portuguese colonies
1961 - Niteroi Circus of Rio de Janeiro catches fire; 323 die
1962 - Beatles 1st British TV appearance (People & Places)
1962 - Current constitution of Monaco promulgated
1963 - Tsjoi Doo Sun forms government in South Korea
1963 - West & East Berlin sign accord about travel rules
1965 - Astrodome opens, 1st event is Judy Garland & Supremes concert
1965 - British government proclaims ends oil-embargo against Rhodesia
1965 - David Levy begins his search for comets
1965 - Dutch government shuts Limburgs coal mine
1965 - Largest newspaper-Sunday NY Times at 946 pages (50 cents)
1967 - Harold Holt, Prime Minister of Australia, vanishes in mysterious circumstances while swimming near Melbourne.
1969 - USAF closes Project Blue Book, concluding no evidence of extraterrestrial spaceships behind thousands of UFO sightings
1970 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1970 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1970 - Poland: shipyard workers in Gdansk strike; soldiers in Gdynia fire at workers emerging from trains, killing dozens.
1971 - "Diamonds are Forever" premieres in US
1971 - Cease fire between India & Pakistan in Kashmir
1971 - Radio Bangladesh begins transmitting
1972 - New line of control agreed to in Kashmir between India & Pakistan
1973 - Arabs terrorists shoot passengers on Boeing 737 to Kuwait
1975 - John Paul Stevens appointed to Supreme Court
1975 - Lynette Fromme sentenced to life for attempt on US President Ford's life
1976 - Superstation WTBS in Atlanta went national
1977 - Elvis Costello & The Attractions 1st US TV appearance (SNL)
1977 - France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island
1978 - OPEC raises oil prices 18%
1978 - Referendum approves new constitution of Rwanda
1978 - The Workers Party of Jamaica is founded by Trevor Munroe.
1978 - OPEC decides on a 14.5 percent petrolium price increase for 1979, to be implemented quarterly
1979 - Budweiser rocket car reaches 1190 kph (record for wheeled vehicle)
1980 - Great Britain performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1980 - Mauritania provisional constitution published
1981 - Members of Red Brigades kidnap Brig Gen James L Dozier
1983 - "Peg" closes at Lunt-Fontanne Theater NYC after 5 performances
1983 - Disco in Madrid catches fire; 83 die
1983 - The Provisional IRA bombs Harrods department store in London, killing six people and injuring 90
1986 - US Congress forms "Irangate" committee
1986 - Mrs Davina Thompson makes medical history by having the 1st heart, lung & liver transplant (Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, England)
1986 - American mafia hitman Richard Kuklinski is arrested at a roadblock
1987 - Czechoslovak party leader Gustav Husak resigns
1988 - USS Tennessee, 1st sub to carry Trident 2 missiles, commissioned
1988 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1989 - Brazil elects Fernando Collor de Mello as president
1989 - The longest-running American sitcom the Simpsons had its debut.1991 - Patrick Manning becomes premier of Trinidad & Tobago
1992 - Gen Suwa finds tooth of 4.4 million year old Australopithecus ramidus
1993 - Bangladesh muslims call for murder of feminist Taslima Nasrin
1994 - KLM's last DC-10 goes out of service
1999 - The United Nations General Assembly passes resolution 54/134 designating November 25 as the annual International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women.
2002 - Second Congo War: The Congolese parties of the Inter Congolese Dialogue sign a peace accord which makes provision for transitional governance and legislative and presidential elections within two years.
2003 - The Soham murder trial ends at the Old Bailey in London, with Ian Huntley found guilty of two counts of murder. His girlfriend Maxine Carr is found guilty of perverting the course of justice.
2003 - SpaceShipOne flight 11P, piloted by Brian Binnie, makes its first supersonic flight.
2005 - Anti-WTO protesters riot in Wan Chai, Hong Kong
2007 - Republic of Lakotah asserts independence from the United States
2012 - Jiroemon Kimura of Japan becomes the world's oldest verified man at 116 years old
2012 - 17 people are killed and 70 are injured by a blast in a market in the Khyber Agency, Pakistan
2012 - 10 girls collecting firewood are killed by a mine blast in east Afghanistan
2012 - 18 people drown after an overloaded boat sinks in Cotonou, Benin
2012 - NASA completes a successful mission to map the Moon’s gravity field
2013 - Angela Merkel is elected Chancellor of Germany for a third term