Today in History

1620		The Pilgrims sight Cape Cod.
1828		In Vienna, Composer Franz Schubert dies of syphilis at age 31.
1861		Julia Ward Howe writes "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" while visiting Union troops near Washington.
1863		Lincoln delivers the "Gettysburg Address" at the dedication of the National Cemetery at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg.
1885		Bulgarians, led by Stefan Stambolov, repulse a larger Serbian invasion force at Slivinitza.
1873		James Reed and two accomplices rob the Watt Grayson family of $30,000 in the Choctaw Nation.
1897		The Great "City Fire" in London.
1905		100 people drown in the English Channel as the steamer Hilda sinks.
1911		New York receives first Marconi wireless transmission from Italy.
1915		The Allies ask China to join the entente against the Central Powers.
1923		The Oklahoma State Senate ousts Governor Walton for anti-Ku Klux Klan measures.
1926		Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Politburo in the Soviet Union.
1942		Soviet forces take the offensive at Stalingrad.
1949		Prince Ranier III is crowned 30th Monarch of Monaco.
1952		Scandinavian Airlines opens a commercial route from Canada to Europe.
1969		Apollo 12 touches down on the moon.
1973		New York stock market takes sharpest drop in 19 years.
1976		Patty Hearst is released from prison on $1.5 million bail.
1981		U.S. Steel agrees to pay $6.3 million for Marathon Oil.
1985		Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, meet for the first time.
1985		In the largest civil verdict in US history, Pennzoil wins $10.53 billion judgement against Texaco.
1990		Pop duo Milli Vanilli are stripped of their Grammy Award after it is learned they did not sing on their award-winning Girl You Know Its True album.
1996		Canada’s Lt. Gen. Maurice Baril arrives in Africa to lead a multinational force policing Zaire.
1998		US House of Representatives begins impeachment hearings against President Bill Clinton.
2010		New Zealand suffers its worst mining disaster since 1914 when the first of four explosions occurs at the Pike River Mine; 29 people are killed.