Today in History

1598		The Edict of Nantes grants political rights to French Huguenots.
1775		Lord North extends the New England Restraining Act to South Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland. The act forbids trade with any country other than Britain and Ireland.
1861		After 34 hours of bombardment, Union-held Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederates.
1864		Union forces under Gen. Sherman begin their devastating march through Georgia.
1902		J.C. Penny opens his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming.
1919		British forces kill hundreds of Indian nationalists in the Amritsar Massacre.
1933		The first flight over Mount Everest is completed by Lord Clydesdale.
1941		German troops capture Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
1943		Nazi Germany announces that it has discovered the corpses of 4,443 Polish military officers massacred by Soviet forces in the Katyn forest near Smolensk, in western Russia.
1943		Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates the Jefferson Memorial.
1945		Vienna falls to Soviet troops.
1960		The first navigational satellite is launched into Earth’s orbit.
1961		The U.N. General Assembly condemns South Africa because of apartheid.
1964		Sidney Poitier becomes the first black individual to win an Oscar for best actor.
1970		An oxygen tank explodes on Apollo 13, preventing a planned moon landing and jeopardizing the lives of the three-man crew.
1976		The U.S. Federal Reserve begins issuing $2 bicentennial notes.
1979		The world’s longest doubles ping-pong match ends after 101 hours.