Today in History

1760
Major Roger Rogers takes possession of Detroit on behalf of Britain.
1787
Louis XVI promulgates an edict of tolerance, granting civil status to Protestants.
1812
The last elements of Napoleon Bonaparte‘s Grand Armee retreats across the Berezina River in Russia.
1863
The Battle of Fort Sanders, Knoxville, Tenn., ends with a Confederate withdrawal.
1864
Colonel John M. Chivington’s 3rd Colorado Volunteers massacre Black Kettles’ camp of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians at Sand Creek, Colo.
1903
An Inquiry into the U.S. Postal Service demonstrates the government has lost millions in fraud.
1923
An international commission headed by American banker Charles Dawes is set up to investigate the German economy.
1929
Commander Richard Byrd makes the first flight over the South Pole.
1931
The Spanish government seizes large estates for land redistribution.
1939
Soviet planes bomb an airfield at Helsinki, Finland.
1948
The Metropolitan Opera is televised for the first time as the season opens with “Othello.”
1948
The popular children’s television show, Kukla, Fran and Ollie, premieres.
1949
The United States announces it will conduct atomic tests at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific.
1961
NASA launches a chimpanzee named Enos into Earth orbit.
1962
Algeria bans the Communist Party.
1963
President Lyndon B. Johnson appoints Chief Justice Earl Warren head of a commission to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
1967
US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara announces his resignation.
1972
Atari announces the release of Pong, the first commercially successful video game.
2007
Armed forces of the Philippines besiege The Peninsula Manila in response to a mutiny led by Senator Antonio Trillanes.