Today in History

996		Sixteen year old Otto III is crowned the Roman Emperor.
1471		King Henry VI is killed in the Tower of London. Edward IV takes the throne.
1506		Christopher Columbus dies.
1536		The Reformation is officially adopted in Geneva, Switzerland.
1620		Present-day Martha’s Vineyard is first sighted by Captain Bartholomew Gosnold.
1790		Paris is divided into 48 zones.
1832		The Democratic party holds its first national convention.
1856		Lawrence, Kansas is captured and sacked by pro-slavery forces.
1863		The siege of the Confederate Port Hudson, Louisiana, begins.
1881		The American Red Cross is founded by Clara Barton.
1927		Charles Lindbergh lands in Paris completing the first solo air crossing of the Atlantic.
1940		British forces attack German General Erwin Rommel‘s 7th Panzer Division at Arras, slowing his blitzkrieg of France.
1941		The first U.S. ship, the S.S. Robin Moor, is sunk by a U-boat.
1951		The U.S. Eighth Army counterattacks to drive the Communist Chinese and North Koreans out of South Korea.
1961		Governor John Patterson declares martial law in Montgomery, Alabama.
1970		The U.S. National Guard mobilizes to quell disturbances at Ohio State University.
1991		In Madras, India, a suicide bomber kills the former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi.