Today in History

43 BC		Cicero, considered one of the greatest sons of Rome, is assassinated on the orders of Marcus Antonius.
983		Otto III takes the throne after his father's death in Italy. A power struggle between magnates ensues.
1787		Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.
1808		James Madison is elected president in succession of Thomas Jefferson.
1861		USS Santiago de Cuba, under Commander Daniel B. Ridgely, halts the British schooner Eugenia Smith and captures J.W. Zacharie, a New Orleans merchant and Confederate purchasing agent.
1862		Confederate forces surprise an equal number of Union troops at the Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas.
1863		Outlaw George Ives, an alleged member of an outlaw gang known as the "Innocents," robs and then kills Nick Thiebalt in the Ruby Valley of what would become Montana.
1917		The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary with only one dissenting vote in Congress.
1918		Spartacists call for a German revolution.
1931		A report indicates that Nazis would ensure "Nordic dominance" by sterilizing certain races.
1941		Japanese planes raid Pearl Harbor in a surprise attack.
1942		The U.S. Navy launches USS New Jersey, the largest battleship ever built.
1946		The president of the United Mine Workers, John L. Lewis, orders all striking miners back to work.
1949		The A.F.L. and the C.I.O. organize a non-Communist international trade union.
1970		Poland and West Germany sign a pact renouncing the use of force to settle disputes, recognizing the Oder-Neisse River as Poland's western frontier, and acknowledging the transfer to Poland of 40,000 square miles of former German territory.
1972		The crew of Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the moon, lifts off at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
1981		The Reagan Administration predicts a record deficit in 1982 of $109 billion.
1988		An earthquake in Armenia kills an estimated 100,000 people.