Today in History

1567   Lord Darnley, the second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, is murdered his sick-bed in a house in Edinburgh when the house blows up.  
1799   The USS Constellation captures the French frigate Insurgente off the West Indies.  
1825   The House of Representatives elects John Quincy Adams, sixth U.S. President.  
1861   Jefferson F. Davis is elected president of the Confederate States of America.  
1864   Union General George Armstrong Custer marries Elizabeth Bacon in their hometown of Monroe, Mich.  
1904   Japanese troops land near Seoul, Korea, after disabling two Russian cruisers.  
1909   France agrees to recognize German economic interests in Morocco in exchange for political supremacy.  
1916   Conscription begins in Great Britain as the Military Service Act becomes effective.
1922   The U.S. Congress establishes the World War Foreign Debt Commission.  
1942   Chiang Kai-shek meets with Sir Stafford Cripps, the British viceroy in India.  
1943   The Red Army takes back Kursk 15 months after it fell to the Germans.  
1946   Stalin announces the new five-year plan for the Soviet Union, calling for production boosts of 50 percent.  
1951   Actress Greta Garbo gets U.S. citizenship.  
1953   The French destroy six Viet Minh war factories hidden in the jungles of Vietnam.  
1964   The U.S. embassy in Moscow is stoned by Chinese and Vietnamese students.  
1978   Canada expels 11 Soviets in spying case.
1994  Nelson Mandela becomes the first black president of South Africa.