Today in History

1539   Hernando De Soto claims Florida for Spain.  
1861   Union troops defeat Confederate forces at Philippi, in western Virginia  
1864   Some 7,000 Union troops are killed within 30 minutes during the Battle of Cold Harbor in Virginia.  
1888   The classic baseball poem "Casey at the Bat," written by Ernest L. Thayer, is published in the San Francisco Examiner.
1918   The Finnish Parliament ratifies a treaty with Germany.  
1923   In Italy, dictator Benito Mussolini grants women the right to vote.  
1928   Manchurian warlord Chian Tso-Lin dies as a result of a bomb blast set off by the Japanese.  
1938   The German Third Reich votes to confiscate so-called "degenerate art."  
1940   The German Luftwaffe hits Paris with 1,100 bombs.
1942   Japanese carrier-based planes strafe Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands as a diversion of the attack on Midway Island.  
1952   A rebellion by North Korean prisoners in the Koje prison camp in South Korea is put down by American troops.  
1965   Astronaut Edward White becomes the first American to walk in space when he exits the Gemini 4 space capsule.  
1969   74 American sailors died when the destroyer USS Frank E. Evans was cut in two by an Australian aircraft carrier in the South China Sea.  
1974   Charles Colson, an aide to President Richard Nixon, pleads guilty to obstruction of justice.  
1989  The Chinese government begins its crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Hundreds are killed and thousands are arrested.