Today in History

1872   Russian Grand Duke Alexis goes on a gala buffalo hunting expedition with Gen. Phil Sheridan and Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer.
1879   The British-Zulu War begins. British troops — under Lieutenant General Frederic Augustus — invade Zululand from the southern African republic of Natal.  
1908   A wireless message is sent long-distance for the first time from the Eiffel Tower in Paris.  
1913   Kiel and Wilhelmshaven become submarine bases in Germany.  
1915   The U.S. Congress establishes Rocky Mountain National Park.
1926   U.S. coal talks break down, leaving both sides bitter as the strike drags on into its fifth month.
1927   U.S. Secretary of State Kellogg claims that Mexican rebel Plutarco Calles is aiding communist plot in Nicaragua.  
1932   Oliver Wendell Holmes retires from the Supreme Court at age 90.
1938   Austria recognizes the Franco government in Spain.  
1940   Soviet bombers raid cities in Finland.  
1943   Soviet forces raise the siege of Leningrad.  
1952   The Viet Minh cut the supply lines to the French forces in Hoa Binh, Vietnam.
1962   The United States resumes aid to the Laotian regime.  
1973   Yassar Arafat is re-elected as head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
1982   Peking protests the sale of U.S. planes to Taiwan.  
1991   The U.S. Congress gives the green light to military action against Iraq in the Persian Gulf Crisis.  
1998   Nineteen European nations agree to prohibit human cloning.  
2010   An earthquake in Haiti kills an estimated 316,000 people.