Today in History

1540		The Society of Jesus, a religious sub-cult under Ignatius Loyola, is approved by the Pope.
1669		The island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea falls to the Ottoman Turks after a 21-year siege.
1791		Jews in France are granted French citizenship.
1864		Confederate guerrilla Bloody Bill Anderson and his henchmen, including a teenage Jesse James, massacre 20 unarmed Union soldiers at Centralia, Missouri. The event becomes known as the Centralia Massacre.
1869		Wild Bill Hickok, sheriff of Hays City, Kan., shoots down Samuel Strawhim, a drunken teamster causing trouble.
1916		Constance of Greece declares war on Bulgaria.
1918		President Woodrow Wilson opens his fourth Liberty Loan campaign to support men and machines for World War I.
1920		Eight Chicago White Sox players are charged with fixing the 1919 World Series.
1939		Germany occupies Warsaw as Poland falls to Germany and the Soviet Union.
1942		Australian forces defeat the Japanese on New Guinea in the South Pacific.
1944		Thousands of British troops are killed as German forces rebuff their massive effort to capture the Arnhem Bridge across the Rhine River in Holland.
1950		U.S. Army and Marine troops liberate Seoul, South Korea.
1956		The U.S. Air Force Bell X-2, the world’s fastest and highest-flying plane, crashes, killing the test pilot.
1964		The Warren Commission, investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, issues its report, stating its conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole gunman.
1979		The US Congress approves the Department of Education as the 13th agency in the US Cabinet.
1983		The Sukhumi massacre takes place: Abkhaz separatist forces and their allies commit widespread atrocities against the civilian population in the USSR state of Georgia.
1996		The Taliban capture Afghanistan’s capital city, Kabul.
2003		The European Space Agency launches the SMART-1 satellite to orbit the moon.
2007		NASA launches the Dawn probe to explore and study the two largest objects of the asteroid belt, Vesta and Ceres.
2008		Zhai Zhigang becomes the first Chinese to walk in space; he was part of the Shenzhou 7 crew.