Today in History

1246		Henry Raspe is elected anti-king by the Rhenish prelates in France.
1455		King Henry VI is taken prisoner by the Yorkists at the Battle of St. Albans, during the War of the Roses.
1804		The Lewis and Clark Expedition officially begins as the Corps of Discovery departs from St. Charles, Missouri.
1856		U.S. Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner with a cane for Sumner’s earlier condemnation of slavery, which included an insult to Brooks’ cousin, Senator Andrew Butler.
1863		Union General Ulysses S. Grant‘s second attack on Vicksburg fails and a siege begins.
1868		The “Great Train Robbery” takes place as seven members of the Reno Gang make off with $98,000 in cash from a train’s safe in Indiana.
1872		The Amnesty Act restores civil rights to Southerners.
1882		The United States formally recognizes Korea.
1908		The Wright brothers register their flying machine for a U.S. patent.
1939		Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini sign a “Pact of Steel” forming the Axis powers.
1947		The Truman Doctrine brings aid to Turkey and Greece.
1967		The children’s program Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood premiers.
1972		Ceylon becomes the Republic of Sri Lanka as its constitution is ratified.
1985		Baseball player Pete Rose passes Hank Aaron as National League run scoring leader with 2,108.
1990		In the Middle East, North and South Yemen merge to become a single state.
1992		Johnny Carson’s final appearance on The Tonight Show on NBC, after 30 years as the program’s host.
2004		An EF4 tornado with a record-setting width of 2.5 miles wipes out Hallam, Nebraska, killing 1 person.
2004		Farenheit 9-11, directed by Michael Moore, becomes the first documentary ever to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
2010		Following a 200-year search for the tomb of Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus his remains are reburied in Frombork Cathedral
2011		An EF5 tornado kills at least 158 people in Joplin, Missouri, the largest death toll from a tornado since record-keeping began in 1950.
2015		The Republic of Ireland, long known as a conservative, predominantly catholic country, becomes the first nation in the world to legalize gay marriage in a public referendum