Today in History

167		Polycarp, a disciple of St. John and bishop of Smyrna, is martyred on the west coast of Asia Minor.
1542		Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII, is beheaded for adultery.
1689		British Parliament adopts the Bill of Rights.
1692		In the Glen Coe highlands of Scotland, thirty-eight members of the MacDonald clan are murdered by soldiers of the neighboring Campbell clan for not pledging allegiance to William of Orange. Ironically the pledge had been made but not communicated to the clans. The event is remembered as the Massacre of Glencoe.
1862		The four day Battle of Fort Donelson, Tennessee, begins.
1865		The Confederacy approves the recruitment of slaves as soldiers, as long as the approval of their owners is gained.
1866		Jesse James holds up his first bank.
1914		The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) is founded.
1936		First social security checks are put in the mail.
1945		The Royal Air Force Bomber Command devastates the German city of Dresden with night raids by 873 heavy bombers. The attacks are joined by 521 American heavy bombers flying daylight raids.
1949		A mob burns a radio station in Ecuador after the broadcast of H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds."
1951		At the Battle of Chipyong-ni, in Korea, U.N. troops contain the Chinese forces' offensive in a two-day battle.
1953		The Pope asks the United States to grant clemency to convicted spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.
1968		The United States sends 10,500 more combat troops to Vietnam.
1970		General Motors is reportedly redesigning automobiles to run on unleaded fuel.
1972		Enemy attacks in Vietnam decline for the third day as the United States continues its intensive bombing strategy.
1984		Konstantin Chernenko is selected to succeed Yuri Andropov as Party General Secretary in the Soviet Union.