Today in History

Navy divers find the crew compartment of the space shuttle Challenger along with the remains of the astronauts.

Iraq launches an offensive against the rebellious Kurds.

General William Westmoreland asks for 206,000 more troops in Vietnam.

Svetlana Alliluyeva, Josef Stalin‘s daughter defects to the United States.

The first Ford Mustang rolls off the Ford assembly line.

The Barbie doll is unveiled at a toy fair in New York City.

Egyptian leader Nasser bars U.N. plans to share the tolls for the use of the Suez Canal.

British authorities arrest and deport Archbishop Makarios from Cyprus. He is accused of supporting terrorists.

Keri Hulme, New Zealand novelist (The Bone People).

Bobby Fischer, first American world chess champion.

Britain frees captured Italian coal ships on the eve of German Foreign Minister, Ribbentrop’s visit to Rome.

Czech President Emil Hacha ousts pro-German Joseph Tiso as the Premier of Slovakia in order to preserve Czech unity.

The German press warns that all Jews who vote in the upcoming elections will be arrested.

Yuri Gagarin, Russian cosmonaut, the first man to orbit the Earth.

Eamon De Valera is elected president of the Irish Free State and pledges to abolish all loyalty to the British Crown.

Ornette Coleman, jazz saxophonist.

Frank Morrison Spillane [Mickey Spillane], crime writer (Kiss Me, Deadly, The Erection Set).

Mexican bandit Pancho Villa leads 1,500 horsemen on a raid of Columbus, N.M. killing 17 U.S. soldiers and citizens.

The Germans take Grodno on the Eastern Front.

The funding for five new battleships is added to the British military defense budget.

Samuel Barber, American composer (“Adagio for Strings,” Vanessa).

Peter Quennell, biographer.

Vita Sackville-West, writer.

Vyacheslav Molotov, former Soviet Prime Minister.

General Ulysses Grant is appointed commander-in-chief of the Union forces.

The first and last battle between the ironclads U.S.S. Monitor and C.S.S. Virginia ends in a draw.

The rebel slaves who seized a Spanish slave ship, the Amistad, in 1839 are freed by the Supreme Court despite Spanish demands for extradition.

The French Academy of Science announces the Daguerreotype photo process.

Leland Stanford, railroad builder, founder of Stanford University.

Congress passes the Land Act, paving the way for westward expansion.

Swedish Pomerania is seized by Napoleon.

Napoleon Bonaparte marries Josephine de Beauharnais in Paris, France.

The Russians take Danzig (Gdansk) in Poland.

The Treaty of Stolbovo ends the occupation of Northern Russia by Swedish troops.

Amerigo Vespucci, Italian navigator.