Today in History

1642		York, Maine becomes the first incorporated American city.
1692		Sarah Goode, Sarah Osborne and Tituba are arrested for the supposed practice of witchcraft in Salem, Mass.
1776		French minister Charles Gravier advises his Spanish counterpart to support the American rebels against the English.
1780		Pennsylvania becomes the first U.S. state to abolish slavery.
1803		Ohio becomes the 17th state to join the Union.
1808		In France, Napoleon creates an imperial nobility.
1815		Napoleon lands at Cannes, France, returning from exile on Elba, with a force of 1,500 men and marches on Paris.
1871		German troops enter Paris, France, during the Franco-Prussian War.
1875		Congress passes the Civil Rights Act, which is invalidated by the Supreme Court in 1883.
1912		Albert Berry completes the first in-flight parachute jump, from a Benoist plane over Kinlock Field in St. Louis, Missouri.
1915		The Allies announce their aim to cut off all German supplies and assure the safety of the neutrals.
1919		The Korean coalition proclaims their independence from Japan.
1921		The Allies reject a $7.5 billion reparations offer in London. German delegations decides to quit all talks.
1932		The Lindbergh baby is kidnapped from the Lindbergh home near Princeton, New Jersey.
1935		Germany officially establishes the Luftwaffe.
1941		Bulgaria joins the Axis as the Nazis occupy Sofia.
1942		Japanese troops land on Java in the Pacific.
1943		The British RAF conducts strategic bombing raids on all European railway lines.
1960		1,000 Black students pray and sing the national anthem on the steps of the old Confederate Capitol in Montgomery, Ala.
1968		Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara is replaced by Clark Clifford.
1969		Mickey Mantle announces his retirement from baseball.
1974		A grand jury indicts seven of President Nixon's aides for the conspiracy on Watergate.
1985		The Pentagon accepts the theory that an atomic war would block the sun, causing a "nuclear winter."
1992		Bosnian Serbs begin sniping in Sarajevo, after Croats and Moslems vote for Bosnian independence.