Today in History

1760		Major Roger Rogers takes possession of Detroit on behalf of Britain.
1787		Louis XVI promulgates an edict of tolerance, granting civil status to Protestants.
1812		The last elements of Napoleon Bonaparte‘s Grand Armee retreat across the Berezina River in Russia.
1863		The Battle of Fort Sanders, Knoxville, Tenn., ends with a Confederate withdrawal.
1864		Colonel John M. Chivington’s 3rd Colorado Volunteers massacre Black Kettles’ camp of Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians at Sand Creek, Colo.
1903		An Inquiry into the U.S. Postal Service demonstrates the government has lost millions in fraud.
1923		An international commission headed by American banker Charles Dawes is set up to investigate the German economy.
1929		Commander Richard Byrd makes the first flight over the South Pole.
1931		The Spanish government seizes large estates for land redistribution.
1939		Soviet planes bomb an airfield at Helsinki, Finland.
1948		The Metropolitan Opera is televised for the first time as the season opens with “Othello.”
1948		The popular children’s television show, Kukla, Fran and Ollie, premieres.
1949		The United States announces it will conduct atomic tests at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific.
1961		NASA launches a chimpanzee named Enos into Earth orbit.
1962		Algeria bans the Communist Party.
1963		President Lyndon B. Johnson appoints Chief Justice Earl Warren head of a commission to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
1967		US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara announces his resignation.
1972		Atari announces the release of Pong, the first commercially successful video game.
2007		Armed forces of the Philippines besiege The Peninsula Manila in response to a mutiny led by Senator Antonio Trillanes.