Today in History

1790		The U.S. patent system is established.
1809		Austria declares war on France and her forces enter Bavaria.
1862		Union forces begin the bombardment of Fort Pulaski in Georgia along the Tybee River.
1865		At Appomattox Court, Va, General Robert E. Lee issues his last orders to the Army of Northern Virginia.
1866		The American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is formed.
1902		South African Boers accept British terms of surrender.
1912		The Titanic begins her maiden voyage which will end in disaster.
1925		F. Scott Fitzgerald publishes The Great Gatsby.
1930		The first synthetic rubber is produced.
1932		Paul von Hindenburg is elected president in Germany.
1938		Germany annexes Austria.
1941		U.S. troops occupy Greenland to prevent Nazi infiltration.
1945		In their second attempt to take the Seelow Heights, near Berlin, the Red Army launches numerous attacks against the defending Germans. The Soviets gain one mile at the cost of 3,000 men killed and 368 tanks destroyed.
1945		Allied troops liberate the Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald north of Weener, Germany.
1947		Jackie Robinson becomes the first black to play major league baseball as he takes the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
1971		The American table tennis team arrives in China.
1974		Yitzhak Rabin replaces resigning Israeli Prime Minister, Golda Meir.
1972		Workers in Shandong, China, discover tombs that contain bamboo slips—among them Sun Tzu’s Art of War and Sun Bin’s lost military treatise.
1981		Imprisoned Irish Republican Army hunger striker Bobby Sands is elected to the British Parliament.