Today in History

1429		Henry VI is crowned King of England.
1812		The first winter snow falls on the French Army as Napoleon Bonaparte retreats form Moscow.
1860		Lincoln is elected the 16th president of the United States.
1861		Jefferson Davis is elected to a six-year term as president of the Confederacy.
1863		A Union force surrounds and scatters defending Confederates at the Battle of Droop Mountain, in West Virginia.
1891		Comanche, the only 7th Cavalry horse to survive George Armstrong Custer’s “Last Stand” at the Little Bighorn, dies at Fort Riley, Kansas.
1911		Maine becomes a dry state.
1917		The Bolshevik “October Revolution” (October 25 on the old Russian calendar), led by Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky, seizes power in Petrograd.
1923		As European inflation soars, one loaf of bread in Berlin is reported to be worth about 140 billion German marks.
1945		The first landing of a jet on a carrier takes place on the USS Wake Island when an FR-1 Fireball touches down.
1973		Coleman Young becomes the first African-American mayor of Detroit, Michigan.
1985		Guerrillas of the leftist 19th of April Movement seize Colombia’s Palace of Justice in Bogota; during the two-day siege and the military assault to retake the building over 100 people are killed, including 11 of the 25 Supreme Court justices.
1986		A British International Helicopters Boeing 234LRR Chinook crashes 2.5 miles east of Sumburgh Airport; 45 people are killed, the deadliest civilian helicopter crash to date (2013).
1986		The Iran arms-for-hostages deal is revealed, damaging the Reagan junta.
1995		The Rova of Antananarivo, home of Madagascar’s sovereigns from the 16th to the 19th centuries, is destroyed by fire.
1999		Australia’s voters reject a referendum to make the country a republic with a president appointed by Parliament.