Today in History

786   Harun al-Rashid succeeds his older brother the Abbasid Caliph al-Hadi as Caliph of Baghdad.  
1194   Richard I, King of England, is freed from captivity in Germany.  
1508   The Proclamation of Trent is made.
1787   Shay's Rebellion, an uprising of debt-ridden Massachusetts farmers against the new U.S. government, fails.
1795   France abolishes slavery in her territories and confers slaves to citizens.  
1889   Harry Longabaugh is released from Sundance Prison in Wyoming, thereby acquiring the famous nickname, "the Sundance Kid."  
1899   After an exchange of gunfire, fighting breaks out between American troops and Filipinos near Manila, sparking the Philippine-American War  
1906   The New York Police Department begins finger print identification.  
1909   California law segregates Caucasian and Japanese schoolchildren.  
1915   Germany decrees British waters as part of the war zone; all ships to be sunk without warning.  
1923   French troops take the territories of Offenburg, Appenweier and Buhl in the Ruhr as a part of the agreement ending World War I.  
1932   Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt inaugurates the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, N.Y.  
1941   The United Service Organization (U.S.O.) is formed to cater to armed forces and defense industries.  1944   The Japanese attack the Indian Seventh Army in Burma.  
1945   The Big Three, American, British and Soviet leaders, meet in Yalta to discuss the war aims.  
1966   Senate Foreign Relations Committee begins televised hearings on the Vietnam War.  
1980   Syria withdraws its peacekeeping force in Beirut.  
1986   The U.S. Post Office issues a commemorative stamp featuring Sojourner Truth.