Today in History

1521   Ferdinand Magellan discovers Guam.  
1820   The Missouri Compromise is enacted by Congress and signed by President James Monroe, providing for the admission of Missouri into the Union as a slave state, but prohibits slavery in the rest of the northern Louisiana Purchase territory.
1836   After fighting for 13 days, the Alamo falls.  
1853   Giuseppe Verdi's opera La Traviata premieres in Venice.  
1857   The Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision holds that blacks cannot be citizens.  
1860   While campaigning for the presidency, Abraham Lincoln makes a speech defending the right to strike.   
1862   The USS Monitor left New York with a crew of 63, seven officers and 56 seamen.  
1884   Over 100 suffragists, led by Susan B. Anthony, present President Chester A. Arthur with a demand that he voice support for female suffrage.  
1888   Louisa May Alcott dies just hours after the burial of her father.
1899   Aspirin is patented following Felix Hoffman's discoveries about the properties of acetylsalicylic acid.  
1901   A would-be assassin tries to kill Wilhelm II of Germany in Bremen.  
1914   German Prince Wilhelm de Wied is crowned as King of Albania.  
1916   The Allies recapture Fort Douamont in France during the Battle of Verdun.  
1928   A Communist attack on Beijing results in 3,000 dead and 50,000 fleeing to Swatow.  
1939   In Spain, Jose Miaja takes over Madrid government after a military coup and vows to seek "peace with honor."  
1943   British RAF fliers bomb Essen and the Krupp arms works in the Ruhr, Germany.  
1945   Cologne, Germany, falls to General Courtney Hodges' First Army.  
1947   Winston Churchill opposes the withdrawal of troops from India.
1948   During talks in Berlin, the Western powers agree to internationalize the Ruhr region.
1953   Upon Josef Stalin's death, Georgi Malenkov is named Soviet premier.  
1960   The Swiss grant women the right to vote in municipal elections.  
1965   The United States announces that it will send 3,500 troops to Vietnam.  
1967   President Lyndon B. Johnson announces his plan to establish a draft lottery.  
1973   Richard Nixon imposes price controls on oil and gas.
1975   Iran and Iraq announce that they have settled the border dispute.
1980   Islamic militants in Tehran say that they will turn over the American hostages to the Revolutionary Council.  
1981   Reagan announces plans to cut 37,000 federal jobs.  
1987   The British ferry Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes in the Channel off the coast of Belgium. At least 26 are dead.