Today in History

1570		A tidal wave in the North Sea destroys the sea walls from Holland to Jutland. More than 1,000 people are killed.
1772		The first Committees of Correspondence are formed in Massachusetts under Samuel Adams.
1789		The property of the church in France is taken away by the state.
1841		The second Afghan War begins.
1869		Sheriff Wild Bill Hickok loses his re-election bid in Ellis County, Kan.
1880		James A. Garfield is elected the 20th president of the United States.
1882		Newly elected John Poe replaces Pat Garrett as sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory.
1889		North Dakota is made the 39th state.
1889		South Dakota is made the 40th state.
1892		Lawmen surround outlaws Ned Christie and Arch Wolf near Tahlequah, Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). It will take dynamite and a cannon to dislodge the two from their cabin.
1903		London's Daily Mirror newspaper is first published.
1914		Russia declares war with Turkey.
1920		The first radio broadcast in the United States is made from Pittsburgh.
1920		Charlotte Woodward, who signed the 1848 Seneca Falls Declaration calling for female voting rights, casts her ballot in a presidential election.
1921		Margaret Sanger and Mary Ware Dennett form the American Birth Control League.
1923		U.S. Navy aviator H.J. Brown sets new world speed record of 259 mph in a Curtiss racer.
1926		Air Commerce Act is passed, providing federal aid for airlines and airports.
1936		The first high-definition public television transmissions begin from Alexandra Palace in north London by the BBC.
1942		Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower arrives in Gibraltar to set up an American command post for the invasion of North Africa.
1943		The Battle of Empress Augusta Bay in Bougainville ends in U.S. Navy victory over Japan.
1947		Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose flies for the first and last time.
1948		Harry S Truman is elected the 33rd president of the United States.
1959		Charles Van Doren confesses that the TV quiz show "21" is fixed and that he had been given the answers to the questions asked him.
1960		A British jury determines that Lady Chatterly's Lover by D.H. Lawrence is not obscene.
1963		South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem is assassinated.
1976		Jimmy (James Earl) Carter elected the 39th president of the United States.
1983		President Ronald Reagan signs a bill establishing Martin Luther King, Jr., Day.