Today in History

1699   The Treaty of Karlowitz ends the war between Austria and the Turks.  
1720   Guilio Alberoni is ordered out of Spain after his abortive attempt to restore his country's empire.  
1788   A fleet of ships carrying convicts from England lands at Sydney Cove in Australia. The day is since known as Australia's national day.
1861   Louisiana secedes from the Union.  
1863   President Lincoln names General Joseph Hooker to replace Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac.  
1875   Pinkerton agents, hunting Jesse James, kill his 18-year-old half-brother and seriously injure his mother with a bomb.  
1885   General "Chinese" Gordon is killed on the palace steps in Khartoum by Sudanese Mahdists in Africa.   
1924   Petrograd is renamed Leningrad.
1934   Germany signs a 10-year non-aggression pact with Poland, breaking the French alliance system.  
1942   American Expeditionary Force lands in Northern Ireland.  
1943   The first OSS (Office of Strategic Services) agent parachutes behind Japanese lines in Burma.  
1964   Eighty-four people are arrested in a segregation protest in Atlanta.  
1969   California is declared a disaster area after two days of flooding and mud slides.  
2005   Condoleezza Rice is appointed to the post of secretary of state. The post makes her the highest ranking African-American woman ever to serve in an U.S. presidential cabinet.