Today in History

1135   Stephen of Blois is crowned the king of England.  
1775   Esek Hopkins takes command of the Continental Navy — a total of seven ships.  
1807   Congress passes the Embargo Act, which halts all trading completely. It is hoped that the act will keep the United States out the European Wars.  
1829   The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad opens the first passenger railway line.
1918   The last of the food restrictions, enforced because of the shortages during World War I, are lifted.  
1929   Soviet troops leave Manchuria after a truce is reached with the Chinese over the Eastern Railway dispute.  
1941   Japanese troops make an amphibious landing on the coast of Lingayen Gulf on Luzon, the Philippines.   
1942   The Soviets drive German troops back 15 miles at the Don River.
1944   During the Battle of the Bulge, General Anthony McAuliffe responds to a German surrender request with a one word answer: "Nuts!"  
1945   The United States recognizes Tito's government in Yugoslavia.  
1965   The EF-105F Wild Weasel makes its first kill over Vietnam.
1966   The United States announces the allocation of 900,000 tons of grain to fight the famine in India.  
1989   The Romanian government of Nicolae Ceausescu is overthrown, ending 42 years of communist rule.  
1989   The division of East and West Germany effectively ends when the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin reopens for the first time in nearly 30 years.  
1992   What became known as the Archives of Terror are discovered in a police station near the capital of Paraguay, records detailing tens of thousands of Latin Americans who had been secretly imprisoned, tortured and / or killed by the security services of several South American governments.  
1997   Hussein Farrah Aidid relinquishes his disputed title of President of Somalia, an important step toward reconciliation in the country.  
2001   President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, takes over an interim government.  
2001   A passenger on American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris, Richard Reid, unsuccessfully attempts to destroy the plane in flight by igniting explosives he'd hidden in his shoes.  
2008   Some 1.1 billion gallons of coal fly ash slurry flood part of Tennessee after an ash dike breaks at a solid waste containment area in Roane County, in the eastern part of the state.  
2010  US President Barack Obama signs a law officially repealing the 17-year-old policy known as "Don't ask, don't tell"; the new law permits homosexuals to serve openly in the US military.