Today in History

Britain and the U.S. send warships to the Persian Gulf following an Iranian offensive against Iraq.

Operation Junction City becomes the largest U.S. operation in Vietnam.

Moscow warns the U.S. that an attack on Cuba would mean war.

A Soviet bid for new Geneva arms talks is turned down by the U.S.

U.S. is to install 60 Thor nuclear missiles in Britain.

French forces evacuate Hoa Binh in Indochina.

The Atomic Energy Commission discloses information about the first atom-powered airplane.

Jonathan Demme, film director (The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia).

President Franklin Roosevelt orders Gen. Douglas MacArthur to leave the Philippines.

All plane flights over the White House are barred because they are disturbing President Roosevelt‘s sleep.

Edward Kennedy, Massachusetts Senator, brother of John F. Kennedy.

Pope Pius rejects Mussolini‘s offer of aid to the Vatican.

Edward Gorey, American writer and illustrator.

Columbia University declares radio education a success.

The American Relief Administration appeals to the public to pressure Congress to aid starving European cities.

Canadian Parliament votes to preserve the union with the British Empire.

The Great White Fleet returns to Norfolk, Virginia, from an around-the-world show of naval power.

A fistfight breaks out in the Senate. Senator Benjamin Tillman suffers a bloody nose for accusing Senator John McLaurin of bias on the Philippine tariff issue.

Sean O’Faolain, Irish short story writer.

Edna St. Vincent Millay, poet.

Frank Winfield Woolworth’s ‘nothing over five cents’ shop opens at Utica, New York. It is the first chain store.

Federal troops capture Wilmington, N.C.

Nathan Bedford Forrest‘s brother, Jeffrey, is killed at Okolona, Mississippi.

Jefferson Davis is inaugurated president of the Confederacy in Richmond, Va. for the second time.

Heinrich Hertz, German physicist, the first person to broadcast and receive radio waves.

Russia and Britain establish the Alaska/Canada boundary.

Spain signs a treaty with the United States ceding eastern Florida.

The last invasion of Britain takes place when some 1,400 Frenchmen land at Fishguard in Wales.

Rembrandt Peale, American painter known for portraits of U.S. founding fathers.

George Washington, Commander-in-chief of Continental forces during the American Revolution and first U.S. President.

Mikhail Romanov is elected czar of Russia.

Charles VII, King of France.

Jews are expelled from Zurich, Switzerland.