Today in History

1595   Henry IV's army defeats the Spanish at the Battle of Fontaine-Francaise.  
1637   American settlers in New England massacre a Pequot Indian village.  
1783   Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier make the first public balloon flight.  
1794   The U.S. Congress prohibits citizens from serving in any foreign armed forces.  
1827   Athens falls to Ottoman forces.
1851   Harriet Beecher Stow publishes the first installment of Uncle Tom's Cabin in The National Era.  
1856   U.S. Army troops in the Four creeks region of California, head back to quarters, officially ending the Tule River War. Fighting, however, will continue for a few more years.  
1863   The Confederate raider CSS Alabama captures the Talisman in the Mid-Atlantic.  
1880   Wild woman of the west Myra Maybelle Shirley marries Sam Starr even though records show she was already married to Bruce Younger.  
1900   British troops under Lord Roberts seize Pretoria from the Boers.  
1940   The German army begins its offensive in Southern France.
1944   The first B-29 bombing raid strikes the Japanese rail line in Bangkok, Thailand.
1947   Secretary of State George C. Marshall outlines "The Marshall Plan," a program intended to assist European nations, including former enemies, to rebuild their economies.  
1956   Premier Nikita Khrushchev denounces Josef Stalin to the Soviet Communist Party Congress.  
1967   The Six-Day War between Israel and Egypt, Syria and Jordan begins.  
1968   Sirhan Sirhan shoots Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy after Kennedy's victory in the pivotal California primary election.  
1973   Doris A. Davis becomes the first African-American woman to govern a city in a major metropolitan area when she is elected mayor of Compton, California.