Today in History

269   Diocletian is proclaimed emperor of Numerian in Asia Minor by his soldiers. He had been the commander of the emperor's bodyguard.  
1695   Zumbi dos Palmares, the Brazilian leader of a 100-year-old rebel slave group, is killed in an ambush. 1700   Sweden's 17-year-old King Charles XII defeats the Russians at Narva.  
1903   In Cheyenne, Wyoming, 42-year-old hired gunman Tom Horn is hanged for the murder of 14-year-old Willie Nickell.  
1914   Bulgaria proclaims its neutrality in the First World War.  
1928   Mrs. Glen Hyde becomes the first woman to dare the Grand Canyon rapids in a scow (a flat-bottomed boat that is pushed along with a pole).  
1931   Japan and China reject the League of Council terms for Manchuria at Geneva.  
1943   U.S. Army and Marine soldiers attack the Japanese-held islands of Makin and Tarawa, respectively, in the Central Pacific.  
1945   The Nazi war crime trials begin at Nuremberg.
1947   Princess Elizabeth (future Queen Elizabeth II) marries Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in Westminster Abbey.  
1950   U.S. troops push to the Yalu River, within five miles of Manchuria.  
1955   The Maryland National Guard is ordered desegregated.  
1962   President John F. Kennedy bars religious or racial discrimination in federally funded housing.
1967   U.S. census reports the population at 200 million.  
1971   The United States announces it will give Turkey $35 million for farmers who agree to stop growing opium poppies.
1974   The United States files an antitrust suit to break up ATT.  
1978   South Africa backs down on a plan to install black rule in neighboring Namibia.  
1981   Microsoft Windows 1.0 released.  
1992   Fire in England's Windsor Castle causes over £50 million in damages.
1998   First module of the International Space Station, Zarya, is launched.  
2008  Dow Jones Industrial Average sinks to lowest level in 11 years in response to failures in the US financial system.