Today in History

1547		Ivan IV crowns himself the new Czar of Russia in Assumption Cathedral in Moscow.
1786		The Council of Virginia guarantees religious freedom.
1847		John C. Fremont, the famed "Pathfinder" of Western exploration, is appointed governor of California.
1865		General William T. Sherman begins a march through the Carolinas.
1900		The U.S. Senate recognizes the Anglo-German Treaty of 1899 by which the UK renounced its rights to the Samoan Islands.
1909		One of Ernest Shackleton's polar exploration teams reaches the Magnetic South Pole.
1914		Maxim Gorky is authorized to return to Russia after an eight year exile for political dissidence.
1920		The League of Nations holds its first meeting in Paris.
1920		Allies lift the blockade on trade with Russia.
1939		Franklin D. Roosevelt asks for an extension of the Social Security Act to include more women and children.
1940		Hitler cancels an attack in the West due to bad weather and the capture of German attack plans in Belgium.
1942		Japan's advance into Burma begins.
1944		Eisenhower assumes supreme command of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe.
1945		The U.S. First and Third armies link up at Houffalize, effectively ending the Battle of the Bulge.
1956		The Egyptian government makes Islam the state religion.
1965		Eighteen are arrested in Mississippi for the murder of three civil rights workers.
1975		The Irish Republican Army calls an end to a 25-day cease fire in Belfast.
1979		The Shah leaves Iran.
1991		The Persian Gulf War begins. The massive U.S.-led offensive against Iraq — Operation Desert Storm — ended on February 28, 1991, when President George Bush declared a cease-fire, and Iraq pledged to honor future coalition and U.N. peace terms.