Today in History

1381   The Peasant's Revolt, led by Wat Tyler, climaxes when rebels plunder and burn the Tower of London and kill the Archbishop of Canterbury.  
1642   Massachusetts passes the first compulsory education law in the colonies.
1645   Oliver Cromwell's army routs the king's army at Naseby.  
1775   The U.S. Army is founded when the Continental Congress authorizes the muster of troops.  
1777   The Continental Congress authorizes the "stars and stripes" flag for the new United States.
1789   Captain William Bligh of the HMS Bounty arrives in Timor in a small boat. He had been forced to leave his ship when his crew mutinied.
1846   A group of settlers declare California to be a republic.  
1864   At the Battle of Pine Mountain, Georgia, Confederate General Leonidas Polk is killed by a Union shell.  
1893   The city of Philadelphia observes the first Flag Day.  
1907   Women in Norway win the right to vote.  
1919   John William Alcot and Arthur Witten Brown take off from St. John's, Newfoundland, for Clifden, Ireland, on the first nonstop transatlantic flight.  
1922   President Warren G. Harding becomes the first president to speak on the radio.  
1927   Nicaraguan President Porfirio Diaz signs a treaty with the U.S. allowing American intervention in his country.  
1932   Representative Edward Eslick dies on the floor of the House of Representatives while pleading for the passage of the bonus bill.  
1940   German forces occupy Paris.  
1942   The Supreme Court rules that requiring students to salute the American flag is unconstitutional.  
1944   Boeing B-29 bombers conduct their first raid against mainland Japan. 1945   Burma is liberated by the British.  
1949   The State of Vietnam is formed.  
1951   UNIVAC, the first computer built for commercial purposes, is demonstrated in Philadelphia by Dr. John W. Mauchly and J. Prosper Eckert, Jr.  
1954   Americans take part in the first nation-wide civil defense test against atomic attack.  
1965   A military triumvirate takes control in Saigon, South Vietnam.  
1982   Argentina surrenders to the United Kingdom ending the Falkland Islands War.
 1985   Gunmen hijack a passenger jet over the Middle East.  
1989   Congressman William Gray, an African American, is elected Democratic Whip of the House of Representatives.  
1995   Chechen rebels take 2,000 people hostage in a hospital in Russia.