Today in History

1572		The Sea Beggars under Guillaume de la Marck land in Holland and capture the small town of Briel.
1778		Oliver Pollock, creates the dollar sign.
1863		The first wartime conscription law goes into effect in the United States.
1865		At the Battle of Five Forks, Gen. Robert E. Lee begins his final offensive.
1868		The Hampton Institute is founded in Hampton, Va.
1905		Berlin and Paris are linked by telephone.
1918		England’s Royal Air Force is formed.
1920		Germany’s Workers Party changes its name to the Nationalist Socialist German Worker’s Party (Nazis).
1924		Adolf Hitler sentenced to five years in prison for the “Beer Hall Putsch.”
1928		China’s Chiang Kai-shek begins attacks on communists.
1929		The yo-yo is introduced in the United States by Louie Marx.
1939		The Spanish Civil War effectively ends with the official recognition of Franco’s government.
1942		The U.S. Navy begins a partial convoy system in the Atlantic.
1945		U.S. forces launch invasion of Okinawa.
1946		A miner’s strike in the U.S. idles 400,000 workers.
1948		The Berlin Airlift begins, relieving the surrounded city from the Soviet siege.
1951		United Nations forces again move northward across the 38th Parallel in Korea.
1954		The U.S. Air Force Academy is founded in Colorado.
1968		The U.S. Army launches Operation Pegasus, the reopening of a land route to the besieged Khe Sanh Marine base.
1970		The U.S. Army charges Captain Ernest Medina for his role in the My Lai massacre.
1982		The United States transfers control of the Panama Canal Zone to Panama.