Today in History

331BC		Alexander the Great decisively shatters King Darius III’s Persian army at Gaugamela (Arbela), in a tactical masterstroke that leaves him master of the Persian Empire.
1273		Rudolf of Habsburg is elected emperor in Germany.
1588		The feeble Sultan Mohammed Shah of Persia, hands over power to his 17-year old son Abbas.
1791		In Paris, the National Legislative Assembly holds its first meeting.
1839		The British government decides to send a punitive naval expedition to China.
1847		Maria Mitchell, an American astronomer, discovers a comet and is elected the same day to the American Academy of Arts—the first woman to be so honored. The King of Denmark will award her a gold medal for her discovery.
1856		The first installment of Gustave Flaubert’s novel Madame Bovary appears in the Revue de Paris after the publisher refuses to print a passage in which the character Emma has a tryst in the back seat of a carriage.
1864		The Condor, a British blockade-runner, is grounded near Fort Fisher, North Carolina.
1878		General Lew Wallace is sworn in as governor of New Mexico Territory. He goes on to deal with the Lincoln County War, Billy the Kid and write Ben-Hur. His Civil War heroics earned him the moniker Savior of Cincinnati.
1890		Yosemite National Park is dedicated in California.
1908		The Ford Model T, the first car for millions of Americans, hits the market. Over 15 million Model Ts are eventually sold, all of them black.
1942		The German Army grinds to a complete halt within the city of Stalingrad.
1943		British troops in Italy enter Naples and occupy Foggia airfield.
1944		The U.S. First Army begins the siege Aachen, Germany.
1946		Eleven Nazi war criminals are sentenced to be hanged at Nuremberg trials—Hermann Goring, Alfred Jodl, Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Wilhelm Keitel, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Fritz Sauckel, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Julius Streicher, and Alfred Rosenberg.
1947		First flight of F-86 Sabre jet fighter, which would win fame in the Korean War.
1949		Mao Zedong establishes the People’s Republic of China.
1957		“In God We Trust” appears on US paper currency as an act to distinguish the US from the officially atheist USSR; the motto had appeared on coins at various times since 1864.
1958		The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) replaces the 43-year-old National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in the US.
1960		Nigeria becomes independent from the UK.
1961		The Federal Republic of Cameroon is formed by the merger of East and West Cameroon.
1962		The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson debuts; Carson will remain The Tonight Show host until 1992.
1964		The first Free Speech Movement protest erupts spontaneously on the University of California, Berkeley campus; students demanded an end to the ban of on-campus political activities.
1964		Japanese “bullet trains” (Shinkansen) begin high-speed rail transit between Tokyo and Osaka.
1971		Walt Disney World opens near Orlando, Florida, the second of Disney’s “Magic Kingdoms.”
1971		The first CT or CAT brain scan is performed at Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon, London.
1974		Five Nixon aides–Kenneth Parkinson, Robert Mardian, Nixon’s Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell–go on trial for conspiring to hinder the Watergate investigation.
1975		A legendary boxing match takes place where Muhammad Ali defeats Joe Frazier in the “Thrilla in Manila.”
1979		The US returns sovereignty of the Panama Canal to Panama.
1982		The first compact disc player is released by Sony.
1989		Denmark introduces the world’s first “civil union” law granting same-sex couples certain legal rights and responsibilities but stopping short of recognizing same-sex marriages.
1991		The Siege of Dubrovnik begins in the Croatian War of Independence.
2009		The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom takes over judicial functions of the House of Lords.