Today in History

1468   Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano succeed their father, Piero de Medici, as rulers of Florence, Italy.  
1762   France cedes to Spain all lands west of the Mississippi–the territory known as Upper Louisiana.  
1818   Illinois admitted into the Union as the 21st state.  
1800   The French defeat an Austrian army at the Battle of Hohenlinden, near Munich.
1847   Frederick Douglass and Martin R. Delaney establish the North Star, and anti-slavery paper.  
1862   Confederate raiders attack a Federal forage train on the Hardin Pike near Nashville, Tenn.
1863   Confederate General James Longstreet moves his army east and north toward Greeneville. This withdrawal marks the end of the Fall Campaign in Tennessee.
1864   Major General William Tecumseh Sherman meets with slight resistance from Confederate troops at Thomas Station on his march to the sea.  
1906   The U.S. Supreme Court orders Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) leaders extradited to Idaho for trial in the Steunenberg murder case.  
1915   The United States expels German attaches on spy charges.  
1916   French commander Joseph Joffre is dismissed after his failure at the Somme. General Robert Nivelle is the new French commander in chief.  
1918   The Allied Conference ends in London where they decide that Germany must pay for the war.  
1925   The League of Nations orders Greece to pay an indemnity for the October invasion of Bulgaria.  
1926   British reports claim that German soldiers are being trained in the Soviet Union.
1950   The Chinese close in on Pyongyang, Korea, and UN forces withdraw southward.  
1965   The National coven of cults asks the United States to halt the massive bombings in North Vietnam. 1977   The State Department proposes the admission of 10,000 more Vietnamese refugees to the United States.  
1979   Eleven are dead and eight injured in a mad rush to see a rock band (The Who) at a concert in Cincinnati, Ohio.  
1984   Toxic gas leaks from a Union Carbide plant and results in the deaths of thousands in Bhopal, India.  
1989   Presidents George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev announce the official end to the Cold War at a meeting in Malta.  
1992   A test engineer for Sema Group sends the world's first text message, using a personal computer and the Vodafone network.
1997   Representatives of 121 nations sign the Ottawa Treaty prohibiting the manufacture or deployment of antipersonnel landmines; the People's Republic of China, the US and the USSR do not sign.  
2005   First manned rocket aircraft delivery of US Mail takes place in Mojave, Cal.  
2009   Suicide bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia, kills 25 people, including three miniseries of the Transitional Federal Government.