Today in History

1765		English Prime Minister Lord Grenville resigns and is replaced by Lord Rockingham.
1774		Russia and the Ottoman Empire sign the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainardji, ending their six-year war.
1779		American troops under General Anthony Wayne capture Stony Point, N.Y.
1875		The new French constitution is finalized.
1882		Mary Todd Lincoln, the widow of Abraham Lincoln, dies of a stroke.
1918		Czar Nicholas and his family are murdered by Bolsheviks at Ekaterinburg, Russia.
1940		Adolf Hitler orders preparations for the invasion of England.
1944		Soviet troops occupy Vilnius, Lithuania, in their drive towards Germany.
1945		The United States detonates the first atomic bomb in a test at Alamogordo, N. M.
1969		Apollo 11 blasts off from Cape Kennedy, Florida, heading for a landing on the moon.
1999		A private plane piloted by John F. Kennedy Jr. is lost over the waters off Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.