Today in History

1263		The Norwegians and Scots face off against each other in the Battle of Largs, an indecisive engagement between the two kingdoms on the Firth of Clyde near Largs, Scotland.
1535		Having landed in Quebec a month ago, Jacques Cartier reaches a town, which he names Montreal.
1780		John André, a British Army officer, is hanged as a spy by the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War for assisting Benedict Arnold’s attempted surrender of the fort at West Point, New York, to the British. On the eve of his execution, André draws this self-portrait.
1814		Spanish Royalists troops under Mariano Osorio defeats rebel Chilean forces of Bernardo O’Higgins and José Miguel Carrera in the Battle of Rancagua.
1862		An Army under Union General Joseph Hooker arrives in Bridgeport, Alabama to support the Union forces at Chattanooga. Chattanooga’s Lookout Mountain provides a dramatic setting for the Civil War’s battle above the clouds.
1870		The papal states vote in favor of union with Italy. The capital is moved from Florence to Rome.
1871		Mormon leader Brigham Young, 70, is arrested for polygamy. He is later convicted, but the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the conviction.
1879		A dual alliance is formed between Austria and Germany, in which the two countries agree to come to the other’s aid in the event of aggression.
1909		Orville Wright sets an altitude record, flying at 1,600 feet. This exceeded Hubert Latham’s previous record of 508 feet.
1931		Aerial circus star Clyde Pangborn and playboy Hugh Herndon, Jr. set off to complete the first nonstop flight across the Pacific Ocean from Misawa City, Japan.
1941		The German army launches Operation Typhoon, the drive towards Moscow.
1950		The comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schultz, makes its first appearance in newspapers.
1964		Scientists announce findings that smoking can cause cancer.
1967		Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court justice, is sworn in. Marshall had previously been the solicitor general, the head of the legal staff of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and a leading American civil rights lawyer.
1980		Congressional Representative Mike Myers is expelled from the US House for taking a bribe in the Abscam scandal, the first member to be expelled since 1861.
1990		Flight 8301 of China’s Xiamen Airlines is hijacked and crashed into Baiyun International Airport, hitting two other aircraft and killing 128 people.
2001		NATO backs US military strikes in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.