Today in History

1072   Robert Guiscard and his brother Roger take Palermo in Sicily.
1645   The Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, is beheaded on Tower Hill, accused of acting as an enemy of the British Parliament.  
1724   King Philip V shocks all of Europe when he abdicates his throne in favor of his eldest son, Louis.  
1811   An uprising of over 400 slaves is put down in New Orleans. Sixty-six blacks are killed and their heads are strung up along the roads of the city.
1847   General Stephen Kearny and Commodore Robert Stockton retake Los Angeles in the last California battle of the Mexican War.  
1861   Florida secedes from the Union.  
1863   London's Underground begins operations.
1870   John D. Rockefeller and his brother William establish the Standard Oil Company of Ohio.  
1899   Filipino leader Emilio Aguinaldo renounces the Treaty of Paris, which annexed the Philippines to the United States.  
1901   The Automobile Club of America installs signs on major highways.
1903   Argentina bans the importation of American beef because of sanitation problems.  
1911   Two German cruisers, the Emden and the Nurnberg, suppress a native revolt on island of Ponape in the Caroline Islands in the Pacific when they fire on the island and land troops.  
1912   The world's first flying-boat airplane, designed by Glenn Curtiss, makes its maiden flight at Hammondsport.
1917   Germany is rebuked as the Entente officially rejects a proposal for peace talks and demands the return of occupied territories from Germany.  
1918   In Washington, the House of Representatives passes legislation for women's suffrage.
1920   The Treaty of Versailles goes into effect.  
1923   The United States withdraws its last troops from Germany.  
1940   German planes attack 12 ships off the British coast; sinking 3 ships and killing 35 people.
1941   The Soviets and Germany agree on the East European borders and the exchange of industrial equipment.
1946   Chiang Kai-shek and the Yenan Communist forces halt fighting in China.
1964   Panama breaks ties with the U.S. and demands a revision of the canal treaty.  
1984   The United States and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations for the first time in 117 years.  
1985   Sandinista Daniel Ortega becomes President of Nicaragua, vowing to continue the country's transformation to a socialist state with close ties to the USSR and Cuba.  
2007  A general strike begins in Guinea; eventually, it will lead to the resignation of the country's president, Lansana Conte.