Today in History

537 
The Goths lay siege to Rome.
1649
The peace of Rueil is signed between the Frondeurs (rebels) and the French government.
1665
A new legal code is approved for the Dutch and English towns, guaranteeing religious observances unhindered.
1702
The Daily Courant, the first regular English newspaper is published.
1810
The Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte is married by proxy to Archduchess Marie Louise.
1811
Ned Ludd leads a group of workers in a wild protest against mechanization.
1824
The U.S. War Department creates the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Seneca Indian Ely Parker becomes the first Indian to lead the Bureau.
1845
Seven hundred Maoris led by their chief, Hone-Heke, burn the small town of Kororareka in protest at the settlement of Maoriland by Europeans, in breach with the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi.
1861
A Confederate Convention is held in Montgomery, Ala., where the new constitution is adopted.
1863
Union troops under General Ulysess S. Grant give up their preparations to take Vicksburg after failing to pass Fort Pemberton, north of Vicksburg.
1865
Union General William Sherman and his forces occupy Fayetteville, N.C.
1888
A disastrous blizzard hits the northeastern United States. Some 400 people die, mainly from exposure.
1900
British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury rejects the peace overtures offered from Boer leader Paul Kruger.
1905
The Parisian subway is officially inaugurated.
1907
President Teddy Roosevelt induces California to revoke its anti-Japanese legislation.
1930
President Howard Taft becomes the first U.S. president to be buried in the National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.
1935
The German Air Force becomes an official organ of the Reich.
1941
President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorizes the Lend-Lease Act which authorizes the act of giving war supplies to the Allies.
1942
General Douglas MacArthur leaves Bataan for Australia.
1965
The American navy begins inspecting Vietnamese junks in hopes of ending arms smuggling to the South.
1966
Three men are convicted of the murder of Malcolm X.
1969 
Levi-Strauss starts to sell bell-bottomed jeans.
1973
An FBI agent is shot at Wounded Knee in South Dakota.
1985
Mikhail Gorbachev is named the new Soviet leader.
1990 
Lithuania declares its independence from the Soviet Union.