Today in History

1303		The War of the Vespers in Sicily ends with an agreement between Charles of Valois, who invaded the country, and Frederick, the ruler of Sicily.
1756		The British at Fort William Henry, New York, surrender to Louis Montcalm of France.
1802		Captain Meriwether Lewis leaves Pittsburgh to meet up with Captain William Clark and begin their trek to the Pacific Ocean.
1864		At the Democratic convention in Chicago, General George B. McClellan is nominated for president.
1919		The Communist Labor Party is founded in Chicago, with the motto, “Workers of the world unite!”
1940		Joseph Avenol steps down as Secretary-General of the League of Nations.
1942		The British army under General Bernard Law Montgomery defeats Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps in the Battle of Alam el Halfa in Egypt.
1944		The British Eighth Army penetrates the German Gothic Line in Italy.
1949		Six of the 16 surviving Union veterans of the Civil War attend the last-ever encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, held in Indianapolis, Indiana.
1951		The 1st Marine Division begins its attack on Bloody Ridge in Korea. The four-day battle results in 2,700 Marine casualties.
1961		A concrete wall replaces the barbed wire fence that separates East and West Germany. It will be called the Berlin Wall.
1965		The US Congress creates the Department of Housing & Urban Development.
1980		The Polish government is forced to sign the Gdansk Agreement allowing the creation of the trade union Solidarity.
1990		East and West Germany sign the Treaty of Unification (Einigungsvertrag) to join their legal and political systems.
1994		The last Russian troops leave Estonia and Latvia.
1994		The Irish Republican Army (IRA) announces a “complete cessation of military operations,” opening the way to a political settlement in Ireland for the first time in a quarter of a century.