Today in History

1742		A Spanish force invading Georgia runs headlong into the colony’s British defenders. The battle decides the fate of a colony.
1777		American troops give up Fort Ticonderoga, on Lake Champlain, to the British.
1791		Benjamin Rush, Richard Allen and Absalom Jones found the Non-denominational African Church.
1795		Thomas Paine defends the principal of universal suffrage at the Constitutional Convention in Paris.
1798		Napoleon Bonaparte‘s army begins its march towards Cairo from Alexandria.
1807		Czar Alexander meets with Napoleon Bonaparte.
1814		Sir Walter Scott’s novel Waverley is published anonymously so as not to damage his reputation as a poet.
1815		After defeating Napoleon at Waterloo, the victorious Allies march into Paris.
1853		Japan opens its ports to trade with the West after 250 years of isolation.
1863		Confederate General Robert E. Lee, in Hagerstown, Maryland, reports his defeat at Gettysburg to President Jefferson Davis.
1925		Afrikaans is recognized as one of the official languages of South Africa, along with English and Dutch.
1927		Christopher Stone becomes the first British ‘disc jockey’ when he plays records for the BBC.
1941		Although a neutral country, the United States sends troops to occupy Iceland to keep it out of Germany’s hands.
1943		Adolf Hitler makes the V-2 missile program a top priority in armament planning.
1966		The U.S. Marine Corps launches Operation Hasting to drive the North Vietnamese Army back across the Demilitarized Zone in Vietnam.
1969		The first U.S. units to withdraw from South Vietnam leave Saigon.
1981		Sandra Day O’Connor becomes the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court.