Today in History

1542		The English defeat the Scots at the Battle of Solway Moss in England.
1859		Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life. The first printing of 1,250 copies sells out in a single day.
1863		In the Battle Above the Clouds, Union Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker’s forces take Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga, Tennessee.
1864		Kit Carson and his 1st Cavalry, New Mexico Volunteers, attack a camp of Kiowa Indians in the First Battle of Adobe Walls.
1874		Joseph Glidden receives a patent for barbed wire.
1902		The first Congress of Professional Photographers convenes in Paris.
1912		Austria denounces Serbian gains in the Balkans; Russia and France back Serbia while Italy and Germany back Austria.
1927		Federal officials battle 1,200 inmates after prisoners in Folsom Prison revolt.
1938		Mexico seizes oil land adjacent to Texas.
1939		In Czechoslovakia, the Gestapo execute 120 students who are accused of anti-Nazi plotting.
1944		American B-29s flying from Saipan bomb Tokyo.
1949		The Iron and Steel Act nationalizes the steel industry in Britain.
1950		UN troops begin an assault into the rest of North Korea, hoping to end the Korean War by Christmas.
1961		The United Nations adopts bans on nuclear arms over American protests.
1963		Jack Ruby fatally shoots the accused assassin of President Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, in the garage of the Dallas Police Department.
1977		Greece announces the discovery of the tomb of King Philip II, father of Alexander the Great.
1979		The United States admits that thousands of troops in Vietnam were exposed to the toxic Agent Orange.
1992		US Congress passes the Brady Bill requiring a 5-day waiting period for handgun sales; the bill is named for Pres. Ronald Reagan’s press secretary who was left partially paralyzed by a bullet during an assassination attempt on Reagan.
1995		Ireland votes 50.28% to 49.72% to end its 70-year-old ban on divorce.
2012		A fire at a clothing factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, kills over 110 people.