Today in History

1474		In the Swiss-Burgundian Wars, the Swiss infantry shatters the army of Charles the Bold at Hericourt near Belfort, countering his march to Lorraine.
1835		Texas officially proclaims its independence from Mexico, and calls itself the Lone Star Republic, after its flag, until its admission to the Union in 1845.
1851		The London-to-Paris telegraph begins operation.
1860		South Carolina’s legislature calls a special convention to discuss secession from the Union.
1862		Lewis Carroll writes in his diary, “Began writing the fairy-tale of Alice–I hope to finish it by Christmas.”
1878		New Mexico Governor Lew Wallace offers amnesty to many participants of the Lincoln County War, but not to gunfighter Billy the Kid.
1897		The first metal dirigible is flown from Tempelhof Field in Berlin.
1907		Paul Corno achieves the first helicopter flight.
1914		The brassiere, invented by Caresse Crosby, is patented.
1927		New York’s Holland Tunnel officially opens for traffic.
1940		The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Hansberry v. Lee that African-Americans cannot be barred from white neighborhoods.
1941		A German U-boat, the U-81, torpedoes Great Britain’s premier aircraft carrier, the HMS Ark Royal. The ship sinks the next day.
1942		Lt. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower flies to Algeria to conclude an agreement with French Admiral Jean Darlan.
1945		Charles de Gaulle is elected president of France.
1952		Harvard’s Paul Zoll becomes the first man to use electric shock to treat cardiac arrest.
1956		The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously strikes down two Alabama laws requiring racial segregation on public buses.
1969		Anti-war protesters stage a symbolic “March Against Death” in Washington, DC.
1970		A powerful tropical cyclone strikes the Ganges Delta region of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), causing an estimated half-million deaths in a single night; the Bhola cyclone is regarded as the worst natural disaster of the 20th century.
1982		The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington, DC.
1985		Some 23,000 people die when the Nevado del Ruiz erupts, melting a glacier and causing a massive mudslide that buries Armero, Columbia.
1989		Compact of Free Association: the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau—places US troops wrested from Japanese control in WWII—become sovereign nations, associated states of the United States.
1989		Hans-Adam II becomes Prince of Liechtenstein (1989– ) upon the death of his father, Franz Joseph II.
2000		Articles of impeachment are passed against Philippine President Joseph Estrada.
2001		The shrub signs an executive order allowing military tribunals against foreigners suspected of connections to planned or actual terrorist acts against the US.