Today in History

1096		Seljuk Turks at Chivito slaughter thousands of German crusaders.
1529		The Pope names Henry VIII of England Defender of the Faith after defending the seven sacraments against Luther.
1600		Tokugawa Ieyasu defeats his enemies in battle and affirms his position as Japan’s most powerful warlord.
1790		The Tricolor is chosen as the official flag of France.
1797		USS Constitution, a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate built for the newly formed U.S. Navy, is successfully launched into Boston Harbor, with Captain James Sever breaking a bottle of Madeira wine on her bowsprit. She will serve in the First Barbary War and will go on to defeat five British warships in the War of 1812; her battle with one of them, HMS Guerriere, earns her the nickname “Old Ironsides.” Constitution will be retired from active service in 1881, but enduring public adoration saves her from the scrap yard and ultimately allows her to become the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world.
1805		Vice Admiral and Viscount Horatio Nelson wins his greatest victory over a Franco-Spanish fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar, fought off Cape Trafalgar, Spain. Nelson is fatally wounded in the battle, but lives long enough to see victory.
1837		Under a flag of truce during peace talks, U.S. troops sieze the Indian Seminole Chief Osceola in Florida.
1861		The Battle of Ball’s Bluff, Va. begins, a disastrous Union defeat which sparks Congressional investigations.
1867		Many leaders of the Kiowa, Comanche and Kiowa-Apache sign a peace treaty at Medicine Lodge, Kan. Comanche Chief Quanah Parker refuses to accept the treaty terms.
1872		The U.S. Naval Academy admits John H. Conyers, the first African American to be accepted.
1879		After 14 months of testing, Thomas Edison first demonstrates his electric lamp, hoping to one day compete with gaslight.
1904		Panamanians clash with U.S. Marines in Panama in a brief uprising.
1917		The first U.S. troops enter the front lines at Somerville under French command.
1939		As war heats up with Germany, the British war cabinet holds its first meeting in the underground war room in London.
1940		Ernest Hemingway’s novel For Whom the Bell Tolls is published.
1942		Eight American and British officers land from a submarine on an Algerian beach to take measure of Vichy French to the Operation Torch landings.
1950		North Korean Premier Kim Il-Sung establishes a new capital at Sinuiju on the Yalu River opposite the Chinese City of Antung.
1959		The Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opens in Manhattan.
1961		Bob Dylan records his first album in a single day at a cost of $400.
1967		The “March on the Pentagon,” protesting American involvement in Vietnam , draws 50,000 protesters.
1969		Israel’s Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan resigns over disagreements with Prime Minister Menachem Begin over policies related to the Palestinians.
1983		The United States sends a ten-ship task force to Grenada.
1994		North Korea and the US sign an agreement requiring North Korea to halt its nuclear weapons program and agree to international inspections.