Today in History

1477   William Claxton publishes the first dated book printed in England. It is a translation from the French of The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosopers by Earl Rivers.  
1626   St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome is officially dedicated.  
1861   The first provisional meeting of the Confederate Congress is held in Richmond, Virginia.  
1865   Mark Twain's first story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is published in the New York Saturday Press.
1901   The second Hay-Pauncefote Treaty is signed. The United States is given extensive rights by Britain for building and operating a canal through Central America.  
1905   The Norwegian Parliament elects Prince Charles of Denmark to be the next King of Norway. Prince Charles takes the name Haakon VII.  
1906   Anarchists bomb St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.  
1912   Cholera breaks out in Constantinople, in the Ottoman Empire.  
1921   New York City considers varying work hours to avoid long traffic jams.
1928   Mickey mouse makes his film debut in Steamboat Willie, the first animated talking picture.  
1936   The main span of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is joined.  
1939   The Irish Republican Army explodes three bombs in Piccadilly Circus.  
1943   RAF bombs Berlin, using 440 aircraft and losing nine of those and 53 air crew members; damage to the German capital is light, with 131 dead.  
1949   The U.S. Air Force grounds B-29s after two crashes and 23 deaths in three days.  
1950   The Bureau of Mines discloses its first production of oil from coal in practical amounts.  
1968   Soviets recover the Zond 6 spacecraft after a flight around the moon.  
1978   Peoples Temple cult leader Jim Jones leads his followers to a mass murder-suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, hours after cult member killed Congressman Leo J. Ryan of California.
1983   Argentina announces its ability to produce enriched uranium for nuclear weapons.  
1984   The Soviet Union helps deliver American wheat during the Ethiopian famine.  
1991   The Croatian city of Vukovar surrenders to Yugoslav People's Army and allied Serb paramilitary forces after an 87-day siege.  
1993   Twenty-one political parties approve a new constitution for South Africa that expands voter rights and ends the rule of the country's white minority.  
2002   UN weapons inspectors under Hans Blix arrive in Iraq.  
2003   Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules the state's ban on same-sex marriages is unconstitutional; the legislature fails to act within the mandated 180 days, and on May 17, 2004, Massachusetts becomes the first US state to legalize same-sex marriage.