Today in History

1789   The National Guard is created in France.  
1812   The last remnants of Napoleon Bonaparte's Grand Armeé reach the safety of Kovno, Poland, after the failed Russian campaign. Napoleon's costly retreat from Moscow
1814   General Andrew Jackson announces martial law in New Orleans, Louisiana, as British troops disembark at Lake Borne, 40 miles east of the city. The Battle of New Orleans  
1862   The Battle of Fredericksburg ends with the bloody slaughter of onrushing Union troops at Marye's Heights. Maine's Colonel Chamberlain at Marye's Heights.  
1902   The Committee of Imperial Defense holds its first meeting in London.  
1908   The Dutch take two Venezuelan Coast Guard ships.  
1937   The Japanese army occupies Nanking, China.  

1940   Adolf Hitler issues preparations for Operation Martita, the German invasion of Greece.  
1941   British forces launch an offensive in Libya.  
1945   France and Britain agree to quit Syria and Lebanon.  
1951   After meeting with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, President Harry S Truman vows to purge all disloyal government workers.  
1968   President Lyndon B. Johnson and Mexico's President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz meet on a bridge at El Paso, Texas, to officiate at ceremonies returning the long-disputed El Chamizal area to the Mexican side of the border.
1972   Astronaut Gene Cernan climbs into his lunar lander on the moon and prepares to lift off. He is the last man to set foot on the moon.  
1973   Great Britain cuts the work week to three days to save energy.
1981   Polish labor leader Lech Walesa is arrested and the government decrees martial law, restricting civil rights and suspending operation of the independent trade union Solidarity.  
1985   France sues the United States over the discovery of an AIDS serum.  
2001   Terrorists attach the Parliament of India Sansad; 15 people are killed, including the terrorists  
2003   Deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein captured; he is found hiding in near his home town of Tikrit.