Today in History

1098		'Christian' Crusaders of the First Crusade seize Antioch, Turkey.
1539		Hernando De Soto claims Florida for Spain.
1861		Union troops defeat Confederate forces at Philippi, in western Virginia
1864		Some 7,000 Union troops are killed within 30 minutes during the Battle of Cold Harbor in Virginia.
1888		The classic baseball poem “Casey at the Bat,” written by Ernest L. Thayer, is published in the San Francisco Examiner.
1918		The Finnish Parliament ratifies a treaty with Germany.
1923		In Italy, dictator Benito Mussolini grants women the right to vote.
1928		Manchurian warlord Zhang Zuolin dies as a result of a bomb blast set off by the Japanese.
1938		The German Third Reich votes to confiscate so-called “degenerate art.”
1940		The German Luftwaffe hits Paris with 1,100 bombs.
1942		Japanese carrier-based planes strafe Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands as a diversion of the attack on Midway Island.
1952		A rebellion by North Korean prisoners in the Koje prison camp in South Korea is put down by American troops.
1965		Astronaut Edward White becomes the first American to walk in space when he exits the Gemini 4 space capsule.
1969		74 American sailors die when the destroyer USS Frank E. Evans was cut in two by an Australian aircraft carrier in the South China Sea.
1974		Charles Colson, an aide to Nixon, pleads guilty to obstruction of justice.
1989		The Chinese government begins its crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Hundreds are killed and thousands are arrested.