Today in History

1494   Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Jamaica, which he names Santa Gloria.  
1814   British attack the American forces at Ft. Ontario, Oswego, New York.  
1821   Napoleon Bonaparte dies in exile on the island of St. Helena.  
1834   The first mainland railway line opens in Belgium.  
1862   Union and Confederate forces clash at the Battle of Williamsburg, part of the Peninsula Campaign.Eyewitness to War  
1862   Mexican forces loyal to Benito Juarez defeat troops sent by Napoleon III in the Battle of Puebla.  
1865   The 13th Amendment is ratified, abolishing slavery.  
1886   A bomb explodes on the fourth day of a workers' strike in Chicago.  
1912   Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda begins publishing.  
1916   U.S. Marines invade the Dominican Republic.  
1917   Eugene Jacques Bullard becomes the first African-American aviator when he earns a flying certificate with the French Air Service.  
1920   Anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Visetti are arrested for murder.  
1935   American Jesse Owens sets the long jump record.
1942   General Joseph Stilwell learns that the Japanese have cut his railway out of China and is forced to lead his troops into India.  
1945   Holland and Denmark are liberated from Nazi control.  
1961   Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space.  
1968   U.S. Air Force planes hit Nhi Ha, South Vietnam in support of attacking infantrymen.