Today in History

364   On the death of Jovian, a conference at Nicaea chooses Valentinan, an army officer who was born in the central European region of Pannania, to succeed him in Asia Minor.  
1154   William the Bad succeeds his father, Roger the II, in Sicily.  
1790   As a result of the Revolution, France is divided into 83 departments.  
1815   Napoleon and 1,200 of his men leave Elba to start the 100-day re-conquest of France.  
1848   Karl Marx and Frederick Engels publish The Communist Manifesto in London.  
1871   France and Prussia sign a preliminary peace treaty at Versailles.  
1901   Boxer Rebellion leaders Chi-Hsin and Hsu-Cheng-Yu are publicly executed in Peking.  
1914   Russian aviator Igor Sikorsky carries 17 passengers in a twin engine plane in St. Petersburg.  
1916   General Henri Philippe Petain takes command of the French forces at Verdun.  
1917   President Wilson publicly asks congress for the power to arm merchant ships.  
1924   U.S. steel industry finds claims an eight-hour day increases efficiency and employee relations.  
1933   Ground is broken for the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.  
1936   Japanese military troops march into Tokyo to conduct a coup and assassinate political leaders.  
1941   British take the Somali capital in East Africa.  
1943   U.S. Flying Fortresses and Liberators pound German docks and U-boat lairs at Wilhelmshaven.  
1945   Syria declares war on Germany and Japan.  
1951   The 22nd Amendment is added to the Constitution limiting the Presidency to two terms.  
1964   Lyndon B. Johnson signs a tax bill with $11.5 billion in cuts.  
1965   Norman Butler is arrested for the murder of Malcom X.  
1968   Thirty-two African nations agree to boycott the Olympics because of the presence of South Africa.  
1970   Five Marines are arrested on charges of murdering 11 South Vietnamese women and children.  
1972   Soviets recover Luna 20 with a cargo of moon rocks.  
1973   A publisher and 10 reporters are subpoenaed to testify on Watergate.  
1990   Daniel Ortega, communist president of Nicaragua, suffers a shocking election defeat at the hands of Violeta Chamorro.  
1993   A bomb rocks the World Trade Center in New York City. Five people are killed and hundreds suffer from smoke inhalation.