Today in History

480 BC		The Greeks defeat the Persians in a naval battle at Salamis.
1587		In France, Huguenot Henri de Navarre routs the Duke de Joyeuse’s larger Catholic force at Coutras.
1709		Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy take Mons in the Netherlands.
1714		George I of England is crowned.
1805		Austrian general Karl Mac surrenders to Napoleon‘s army at the battle of Ulm.
1818		The United States and Britain establish the 49th Parallel as the boundary between Canada and the United States.
1870		The Summer Palace in Beijing, China, is burnt to the ground by a Franco-British expeditionary force.
1903		The Joint Commission, set up on January 24 by Great Britain and the United States to arbitrate the disputed Alaskan boundary, rules in favor of the United States. The deciding vote is Britain’s, which embitters Canada. The United States gains ports on the panhandle coast of Alaska.
1904		Bolivia and Chile sign a treaty ending the War of the Pacific. The treaty recognizes Chile’s possession of the coast, but provides for construction of a railway to link La Paz, Bolivia, to Arica, on the coast.
1924		Baseball’s first ‘colored World Series’ is held in Kansas City, Mo.
1938		Czechoslovakia, complying with Nazi policy, outlaws the Communist Party and begins persecuting Jews.
1941		German troops reach the approaches to Moscow.
1941		German soldiers murder more than 2,700 Serbian civilians in Kragujevac in reprisal for insurgent attacks in the Gornji Milanovac district, which resulted in the deaths of 10 German soldiers and the wounding of 26 others.The number of hostages to be shot is calculated based on a ratio of 100 hostages executed for every German soldier killed and 50 hostages executed for every German soldier wounded.The day of the massacre is commemorated annually in Serbia as the Day of Remembrance of the Serbian Victims of World War II.
1945		Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon form the Arab League to present a unified front against the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.
1947		The House Un-American Activities Committee opens public hearings on alleged communist infiltration in Hollywood. Among those denounced as having un-American tendencies are: Katherine Hepburn, Charles Chaplin and Edward G. Robinson. Among those called to testify is Screen Actors Guild President Ronald Reagan, who denies that leftists ever controlled the Guild and refuses to label anyone a communist.
1968		Jacqueline Kennedy marries Aristotle Onassis.
1973		Arab oil-producing nations ban oil exports to the United States following the outbreak of the Arab-Israeli war.
1977		A charter plane crashes in Mississippi, killing three members of popular Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, along with their assistant road manager, the pilot and co-pilot.
1991		The Oakland Hills firestorm destroys nearly 3,500 homes and apartments and kills 25 people.
2011		In the Libyan civil war, rebels capture deposed dictator Muammar Gaddafi in his hometown of Sirte, killing him soon afterward.