Today in History

1442   Alfonso V of Aragon is crowned King of Naples.  
1812   Napoleon Bonaparte and his army invade Russia.  
1849   The gas mask is patented by L. P. Haslett.  
1862   Confederate General J. E. B. Stuart begins his ride around the Union Army outside of Richmond, Virginia.  
1901   Cuba agrees to become an American protectorate by accepting the Platt Amendment.  
1918   The first airplane bombing raid by an American unit occurs in France.
1920   repugicans nominate Warren G. Harding for president and Calvin Coolidge for vice president.  
1921   President Warren Harding urges every young man to attend military training camp.  
1926   Brazil quits the League of Nations in protest over plans to admit Germany.  
1931   Gangster Al Capone and 68 of his henchmen are indicted for violating Prohibition laws.  
1937   Eight of Stalin's generals are sentenced to death during purges in the Soviet Union.  
1942   American bombers strike the oil refineries of Ploesti, Rumania for the first time.  
1963   Black civil rights leader Medgar Evers is assassinated by a gunman outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi.  
1967   The Supreme Court rules that states cannot ban interracial marriages.  
1972   At a hearing in front the of a U.S. House of Representatives committee, Air Force General John Lavalle defends his orders on engagement in Vietnam.  
1977   David Berkowitz gets 25 years to life for the Son of Sam murders in New York.  
1985   The U.S. House of Representatives approves $27 million in aid to the Nicaraguan Contras.  
1991  Mount Pinatubo in the Phillipines begins erupting for the first time in 600 years.