Today in History

1542   Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII, is beheaded for adultery.  
1689   British Parliament adopts the Bill of Rights.  
1692   In the Glen Coe highlands of Scotland, thirty-eight members of the MacDonald clan are murdered by soldiers of the neighboring Campbell clan for not pledging allegiance to William of Orange. Ironically the pledge had been made but not communicated to the clans. The event is remembered as the Massacre of Glencoe.  
1862   The four day Battle of Fort Donelson, Tennessee, begins.  
1865   The Confederacy approves the recruitment of slaves as soldiers, as long as the approval of their owners is gained.  
1866   Jesse James holds up his first bank.
1914   The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) is founded.  
1936   First social security checks are put in the mail.  
1945   The Royal Air Force Bomber Command devastates the German city of Dresden with night raids by 873 heavy bombers. The attacks are joined by 521 American heavy bombers flying daylight raids.  
1949   A mob burns a radio station in Ecuador after the broadcast of H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds."  
1951   At the Battle of Chipyong-ni, in Korea, U.N. troops contain the Chinese forces' offensive in a two-day battle.  
1953   The Pope asks the United States to grant clemency to convicted spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.  
1968   The United States sends 10,500 more combat troops to Vietnam.
1970   General Motors is reportedly redesigning automobiles to run on unleaded fuel.
1972   Enemy attacks in Vietnam decline for the third day as the United States continues its intensive bombing strategy.  
1984  Konstantin Chernenko is selected to succeed Yuri Andropov as Party General Secretary in the Soviet Union.