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Today in History

• 1191 - Third Crusade: Battle of Arsuf - Richard I of England defeats Saladin at Arsuf.
• 1812 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Borodino - Napoleon defeats the Russian army of Alexander I near the village of Borodino.
• 1818 - Carl III of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Norway, in Trondheim.
• 1822 - Brazil declares its independence from Portugal.
• 1860 - Steamship sinks on Lake Michigan, with the loss of around 400 lives.
• 1876 - In Northfield, Minnesota, Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang attempt to rob the town's bank but are surrounded by an angry mob and are nearly wiped out.
• 1901 - The Boxer Rebellion in China officially ends with the signing of the Peking Protocol.
• 1911 - French poet Guillaume Apollinaire is arrested and put in jail on suspicion of stealing the from the Louvre museum.
• 1921 - In Atlantic City, New Jersey, the first Miss America Pageant is held.
• 1943 - A fire at the Gulf Hotel in Houston, Texas kills 55 people.
• 1953 - Nikita Khrushchev becomes head of the Soviet Central Committee.
• 1965 - Vietnam War: In a follow-up to August's Operation Starlight, United States Marines and South Vietnamese forces initiate Operation Pirahna on the Batangan Peninsula.
• 1966 - The final new episode of airs (the first episode aired on , 1961).
• 1977 - The Torrijos-Carter Treaties between Panama and the United States on the status of the Panama Canal are signed. The US agrees to transfer control of the canal to Panama at the end of the 20th century.
• 1979 - The Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN) makes its debut.
• 1979 - The Chrysler Corporation asks the United States government for $1 billion dollars to avoid bankruptcy.
• 1986 - Desmond Tutu becomes the first black to lead the Anglican Church in South Africa.
• 1996 - In Las Vegas, Nevada, actor and recording artist Tupac Shakur is shot several times after attending a boxing match.
• 1997 - The first test flight of the F/A-22 Raptor takes place.
• 2004 - The Serbian government backs a decision by Minister of Education and Sport Ljiljana Colic to require the teaching of both creationism and evolution in schools.

 

Today's Birthdays

• 1900 - Taylor Caldwell, American author (d. 1985)
• 1913 - Sir Anthony Quayle, actor (d. 1989)
• 1937 - John Phillip Law, actor
• 1949 - Lee McGeorge Durrell, American author, television presenter, and zookeeper
• 1952 - Susan Blakely, American actress
• 1954 - Corbin Bernsen, American actor
• 1955 - Mira Furlan, Croatian actress
• 1976 - Shannon Elizabeth, American actress
• 1982 - Lorne Berfield, American actor