Today in History

63 BC - Cicero reads the last of his Catiline Orations.
663 - Fourth Council of Toledo takes place.
771 - Charlemagne becomes the sole King of the Franks after the death of his brother Carloman.
1360 - The French Franc is created.
1408 - Emir Edigu of Golden Horde reaches Moscow.
1456 - Earthquake strikes Naples; about 35,000 die
1717 - Blackbeard ransacks the merchant sloop "Margaret" and keeps her captain, Henry Bostock, prisoner for 8 hours before releasing him. Bostock would later provide the first recorded of Blackbeard's appearance, with specific reference to his "very black beard", providing the source for his name
1766 - London auctioneers Christie's hold their first sale
1775 - At Fort Ticonderoga, Henry Knox begins his historic transport of artillery to Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1776 - First US fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa (William & Mary College), forms
1848 - President Polk triggers Gold Rush of 1849 by confirming gold discovery in California
1876 - Fire at Brooklyn Theater kills 295, trampled or burned to death
1879 - 1st automatic telephone switching system patented
1887 - Stanley's expedition reaches plateau at Lake Albert Congo
1929 - 1st US nudist organization (American League for Physical Culture, NYC)

1932 - German physicist Albert Einstein granted a visa to enter America
1952 - -8th worst smog in London ever, 4-8,000 die
1967 - Beatles clothing store "Apple" opens at 94 Baker Street, London
1988 - NC federal grand jury indict PTL founder Jim Bakker on fraud & conspiracy
1990 - Salman Rushdie, author, ordered to death by Iran for blasphemy, appears in public for 1st time in 2 years
2005 - The Lake Tanganyika earthquake causes significant damage, mostly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
2008 - Human remains previously found in 1991 are finally identified by Russian and American scientists as those of Tsar Nicholas II.

2013 - 52 people are killed and 167 are injured in a militant attack on a defense ministry compound in Sana'a, Yemen