Today in History

1408		The revolt of Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, against King Henry IV, ends with his defeat and death at Bramham Moor.
1701		Philip V of Spain makes his ceremonial entry into Madrid.
1807		Vice President Aaron Burr is arrested in Alabama for treason. He is later found innocent.
1847		Rescuers finally reach the ill-fated Donner Party in the Sierras.
1861		Russian Tsar Alexander II abolishes serfdom.
1902		Smallpox vaccination becomes obligatory in France.
1903		The Austria-Hungary government decrees a mandatory two year military service.
1915		British and French warships begin their attacks on the Turkish forts at the mouth of the Dardenelles, in an abortive expedition to seize the straits of Gallipoli.
1917		American troops are recalled from the Mexican border.
1919		The First Pan African Congress meets in Paris, France.
1925		President Calvin Coolidge proposes the phasing out of inheritance tax.
1926		Dr. Lane of Princeton estimates the earth’s age at one billion years.
1942		Port Darwin, on the northern coast of Australia, is bombed by the Japanese.
1944		The U.S. Eighth Air Force and Royal Air Force begin “Big Week,” a series of heavy bomber attacks against German aircraft production facilities.
1965		Fourteen Vietnam War protesters are arrested for blocking the United Nations’ doors in New York.
1966		Robert F. Kennedy suggests the United States offer the Vietcong a role in governing South Vietnam.
1976		Britain slashes welfare spending.
1981		The U.S. State Department calls El Salvador a “textbook case” of a Communist plot.
1987		New York Governor Mario Cuomo declares that he will not run for president in the next election.