Today in History

1430   Burgundians capture Joan of Arc and sell her to the English.  
1533   Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void.  
1618   The Thirty Years War begins.  
1701   Captain William Kidd, the Scottish pirate, is hanged on the banks of the Thames.
1785   Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocals.
1788   South Carolina becomes the eighth state to ratify U.S. Constitution.  
1861   Pro-Union and pro-Confederate forces clash in western Virginia.
1862   Confederate General "Stonewall" Jackson takes Front Royal, Virginia.  
1864   Union General Ulysses Grant attempts to outflank Confederate Robert E. Lee in the Battle of North Anna, Virginia.  
1900   Civil War hero Sgt. William H. Carney becomes the first African American to receive the Medal of Honor, thirty-seven years after the Battle of Fort Wagner.
1901   American forces capture Filipino rebel leader Emilio Aguinaldo.  
1915   Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary.  
1934   Gangsters Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are killed by Texas Rangers.  
1945   Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Nazi Gestapo, commits suicide after being captured by Allied forces.  
1949   The Federal Republic of West Germany is proclaimed.  
1960   Israel announces the capture of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina.