Today in History

1236		Henry III marries Eleanor of Provence.
1526		Francis of France, held captive by Charles V for a year, signs the Treaty of Madrid, giving up most of his claims in France and Italy.
1797		Napoleon Bonaparte defeats the Austrians at Rivoli in northern Italy.
1858		Emperor Napoleon and Empress Eugenie escape unhurt after an Italian assassin throws a bomb at their carriage as they travel to the Paris Opera.
1864		Confederate President Jefferson Davis writes to General Joseph E. Johnson, observing that troops may need to be sent to Alabama or Mississippi.
1911		The USS Arkansas, the largest U.S. battleship, is launched from the yards of the New York Shipbuilding Company.
1915		The French abandon five miles of trenches to the Germans near Soissons.
1916		British authorities seize German attaché Franz von Papen’s financial records confirming espionage activities in the U.S.
1917		A Provisional Parliament is established in Poland.
1920		Berlin is placed under martial law as 40,000 radicals rush the Reichstag; 42 are dead and 105 are wounded.
1942		President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders all aliens in the U.S. to register with the government.
1943		Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Charles DeGaulle meet at Casablanca to discuss the direction of the war.
1943		Italian occupation authorities refuse to deport Jews living in their territories in France.
1969		A blast on the U.S. carrier Enterprise in the Pacific results in 24 dead and 85 injured.
1980		The United Nations votes 104-18 to deplore the Soviet aggression in Afghanistan.
2000		UN tribunal sentences 5 Bosnian Croats to prison for up to 25 years; they were charged with killing some 100 Muslims in a Bosnian village in 1993.
2004		The Republic of Georgia restores the “five cross flag” as its national flag after some 500 years of disuse.
2005		Huygens probe lands on Saturn’s moon Titan.
2010		Yemen declares war on al-Qaeda terrorist group.
2011		Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, former president of Tunisia, flees to Saudi Arabia after a series of demonstrations against his regime.