Today in History

1430		Burgundians capture Joan of Arc and sell her to the English.
1533		Henry VIII‘s marriage to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void.
1618		The Thirty Years War begins.
1701		Captain William Kidd, the Scottish pirate, is hanged on the banks of the Thames.
1785		Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocals.
1788		South Carolina becomes the eighth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1861		Pro-Union and pro-Confederate forces clash in western Virginia.
1862		Confederate General “Stonewall” Jackson takes Front Royal, Virginia.
1864		Union General Ulysses Grant attempts to outflank Confederate Robert E. Lee in the Battle of North Anna, Virginia.
1900		Civil War hero Sgt. William H. Carney becomes the first African American to receive the Medal of Honor, thirty-seven years after the Battle of Fort Wagner.
1915		Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary.
1934		Gangsters Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are killed by Texas Rangers.
1945		Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Nazi Gestapo, commits suicide after being captured by Allied forces.
1949		The Federal Republic of West Germany is proclaimed.
1960		Israel announces the capture of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina.