Today in History

425		Theodosius effectively founds a university in Constantinople.
1531		German Protestants form the League of Schmalkalden to resist the power of the emperor.
1700		The Pacific Island of New Britain is discovered.
1814		Napoleon‘s Marshal Nicholas Oudinot is pushed back at Barsur-Aube by the Emperor’s allied enemies shortly before his abdication.
1827		The first Mardi-Gras celebration is held in New Orleans.
1864		The first Union prisoners arrive at the Confederate prison in Andersonville, Georgia. Of nearly 45,000 prisoners of war who arrive at the camp, approximately 13,000 will perish from starvation, scurvy, diarrhea, and dysentery.
1865		Confederate raider William Quantrill and his bushwackers attack Hickman, Kentucky, shooting women and children.
1905		The Japanese push Russians back in Manchuria and cross the Sha River.
1908		The forty-sixth star is added to the U.S. flag, signifying Oklahoma’s admission to statehood.
1920		The United States rejects a Soviet peace offer as propaganda.
1925		Glacier Bay National Monument is dedicated in Alaska.
1933		The burning down of the Reichstag building in Berlin gives the Nazis the opportunity to suspend personal liberty with increased power.
1939		The Supreme Court outlaws sit-down strikes.
1942		British Commandos raid a German radar station at Bruneval on the French coast.
1953		F-84 Thunderjets raid North Korean base on Yalu River.
1962		South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem is unharmed as two planes bomb the presidential palace in Saigon.
1963		The Soviet Union says that 10,000 troops will remain in Cuba.
1969		Thousands of students protest Nixon‘s arrival in Rome.
1973		U.S. Supreme Court rules that a Virginia pool club can’t bar residents because of color.
1988		Debi Thomas becomes the first African American to win a medal at the Winter Olympics.
1991		Coalition forces liberate Kuwait after seven months of occupation by the Iraqi army.