Today in History

375 Enraged by the insolence of barbarian envoys, Valentinian, the Emperor of the West, dies of apoplexy in Pannonia in Central Europe.
1558
Queen Elizabeth ascends to the throne of England.
1558
The Church of England is re-established.
1636
Henrique Dias, Brazilian general, wins a decisive battle against the Dutch in Brazil.
1796
Napoleon Bonaparte defeats an Italian army near the Alpine River, Italy.
1800
The Sixth Congress (2nd session) convenes for the first time in Washington, D.C.
1842
A grim abolitionist meeting is held in Marlboro Chapel, Boston, after the imprisonment of a mulatto named George Latimer, one of the first fugitive slaves to be apprehended in Massachusetts.
1862
Union General Ambrose Burnside marches north out of Washington, D.C., to begin the Fredericksburg campaign.
1869
The Suez Canal is formally opened.
1877
Russia launches a surprise night attack that overruns Turkish forces at Kars, Armenia.
1885
The Serbian Army, with Russian support, invades Bulgaria.
1903
Vladimir Lenin’s efforts to impose his own radical views on the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party splits the party into two factions, the Bolsheviks, who support Lenin, and the Mensheviks.
1913
The first ship sails through the Panama Canal, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
1918
Influenza deaths reported in the United States have far exceeded World War I casualties.
1918
German troops evacuate Brussels.
1931
Charles Lindbergh inaugurates Pan Am service from Cuba to South America in the Sikorsky flying boat American Clipper.
1941
German Luftwaffe general and World War I fighter-ace Ernst Udet commits suicide. The Nazi government tells the public that he died in a flying accident.
1951
Britain reports development of the world’s first nuclear-powered heating system.
1965
The NVA ambushes American troops of the 7th Cavalry at Landing Zone Albany in the Ia Drang Valley, almost wiping them out.
1967
The American Surveyor 6 makes a six-second flight on the moon, the first lift-off on the lunar surface.
1970
The Soviet unmanned Luna 17 touches down on the moon.
1980
WHHM Television in Washington, D.C., becomes the first African-American public-broadcasting television station.
1986
Renault President Georges Besse is shot to death by leftists of the Direct Action Group in Paris.
1989
Student demonstration in Prague put down by riot police, leading to an uprising (the Velvet Revolution) that will topple the communist government on Dec. 29.
1993
US House of Representatives passes resolution to establish the North American Free Trade Agreement.
1993
Gen. Sani Abacha leads a military coup in Nigeria that overthrows the government of Ernest Shonekan.
2000
Controversial President of Peru Alberto Fujimori is removed from office.