Today in History
1775 - The British burn Portland, Maine burned by British.
1781 - Washington takes Yorktown.
1829 - In Boston, the first modern American hotel, the Tremont, opens.
1849 - The British seize Tigre Island in the Gulf of Fonseca from Honduras.
1859 - John Brown leads a raid on the federal arsenal in Harper's Ferry, VA.
1861 - The Confederacy starts selling postage stamps.
1869 - A hotel in Boston becomes the first to have indoor plumbing.
1923 - The Disney Co. is founded.
1925 - The Texas School Board prohibits the teaching of evolution.
1926 - A troop ship sinks in the Yangtze River, killing 1,200.
1940 - Benjamin Oliver Davis, Sr., is named as the first Black General in the regular army; a lottery for the first American WWII draftees is held; #158 is the first drawn; the Warsaw Ghetto is established.
1941 - Germany advances within 60 miles of Moscow.
1942 - The National Boxing Association freezes the titles of those serving in the armed forces.
1943 - Chicago Mayor Ed Kelly opens the city's new subway system.
1946 - 10 Nazi leaders are hanged as war criminals following the Nuremberg trials.
1962 - The Cuban missile crisis begins, as JFK becomes aware of missiles in Cuba.
1964 - China becomes the world's 5th nuclear power.
1969 - Soyuz-6 returns to Earth.
1970 - Anwar Sadat is elected president of Egypt.
1973 - Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1976 - Soyuz-23 returns to Earth.
1978 - Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla is elected supreme pontiff (John Paul II).
1982 - The Mt. Palomar Observatory is the first to detect Halley's comet's 13th return; The U.S. warns that it will withdraw from U.N. if they vote to exclude Israel.
1984 - Desmond Tutu wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
1985 - Intel introduces the 32-bit 80386 microcomputer chip.
1986 - The U.S. government shuts down due to budget problems.
1987 - Jessica McClure ("Baby Jessica") is rescued 58 hrs after falling 22' into a well shaft.
1990 - U.S. forces reach 200,000 in the Persian Gulf.
1991 - George Jo Hennard kills 23 and wounds 20 in Texas, then kills himself; The U.S. Supreme Court begins to hear the Joseph Doherty case.

Birthdays
1708 - Albrecht von Haller, experimental physiology (Academy of Science)
1758 - Noah Webster, lexicographer (Webster's Dictionary)
1792 - Francisco Moraz, president of Central America (1830-40)
1863 - Sir Austen Chamberlain, British Foreign Secretary, Nobel Prize winner (1925)
1886 - David Ben-Gurion, first PM of Israel (1948-53, 55)
1898 - Arthur H. Dean, lawyer / advisor to FDR; William O. Douglas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (1939-75)
1908 - Enver Hoxha, post-WWII leader of Albania (1944-85)

Passings
1793 - Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, beheaded
1946 - Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Austrian chancellor (1930s)
1951 - Liaquat Ali Khan, PM of Pakistan, assassinated by Said Akbar
1981 - Moshe Dayan, Israeli general
1990 - Art Blakey, jazz drummer (Jazz Messengers)

Reported Missing in Action
1965
Bell, James F., USN (MD); RA5C shot down (pilot, w/Hutton), released by DRV February, 1973 - retired as a Captain - alive as of 1998

Hutton, James L., USN (Washington D.C.); RA5C shot down (w/Bell), released by DRV February, 1973 - retired as a Captain - alive and well as of 1998

1967
Applehans, Richard D., USAF (MT); RF4C disappeared while on mission (pilot, w/Clarke)

Clarke, George W., Jr., USAF (VA); RF4C disappeared while on mission (backseater, w/Applehans)

1969
Booth, Lawrence R., US Army (VA); OV1C shot down (pilot); Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Assoc. lists different vehicle and cause

Rattin, Dennis M., US Army (IL); OV1C shot down (pilot); Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Assoc. lists different vehicle and cause

1970
Martin, John B. II, USN (NJ); F8J crashed, KIA, body not recovered