Today in history 2/24/2021-2/28/2021

2/24/2021:

Today in history, Pepin the Short of Gaul dies. His dominions are divided between his sons Charles (Charlemagne) and Carloman in 786.

Today in history, In the first of the Franco-Habsburg Wars, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V captures the French king Francis I at the Battle of Pavia, Italy in 1525.

Today in history, Chief Justice John Marshall, by refusing to rule on the case of Marbury vs. Madison, asserts the authority of the judicial branch in 1803.

Today in history, Mexico gains independence from Spain in 1821.

Today in history, Some 3,000 Mexicans launch an assault on the Alamo and its 182 Texan defenders in 1836

Today in history, A film version of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea opens in New York in 1916.

Today in history, The New Gallery of New York exhibits works of Archibald Motley Jr., its first show to feature a black artist in 1928.

Today in history, General Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of the coalition army, sends in ground forces during the Gulf War in 1991.

2/25/2021:

Today in history, The British surrender the Illinois country to George Rogers Clark at Vincennes in 1779.

Today in history, American General Nathaniel Greene crosses the Dan River on his way to attack Cornwallis in 1781.

Today in history, President George Washington signs a bill creating the Bank of the United States in 1791.

Today in history, Thomas Jefferson is nominated for president at the Democratic-Republican caucus in 1804.

Today in history, The Polish army halts the Russian advance into their country at the Battle of Grochow in 1831.

Today in history, J.M. Synge’s play Riders to the Sea opens in Dublin in 1904

Today in history, Bell Labs introduces a new device to end the fluttering of the television image in 1928.

Today in history, U.S. troops retake the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia, where they had been defeated five days before in 1943.

Today in history, Stalin is secretly disavowed by Khrushchev at a party congress for promoting the “cult of the individual” in 1956

2/26/2021:

Today in history, On the death of Jovian, a conference at Nicaea chooses Valentinan, an army officer who was born in the central European region of Pannania, to succeed him in Asia Minor in 364.

Today in history, William the Bad succeeds his father, Roger the II, in Sicily in 1154.

Today in history, Napoleon and 1,200 of his men leave Elba to start the 100-day re-conquest of France in 1815.

Today in history, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels publish The Communist Manifesto in London in 1848.

Today in history, Russian aviator Igor Sikorsky carries 17 passengers in a twin engine plane in St. Petersburg in 1914.

Today in history, Ground is broken for the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco in 1933.

Today in history, Japanese military troops march into Tokyo to conduct a coup and assassinate political leaders in 1936.

Today in history, The 22nd Amendment is added to the Constitution limiting the Presidency to two terms in 1951.

Today in history, Soviets recover Luna 20 with a cargo of moon rocks in 1972.

2/27/2021:

Today in history, Theodosius effectively founds a university (see picture below) in Constantinople in 425.

Today in history, German Protestants form the League of Schmalkalden to resist the power of the emperor in 1531.

Today in history, The first Mardi-Gras celebration is held in New Orleans in 1827.

Today in history, The Japanese push the Russians back in Manchuria and cross the Sha River in 1905.

Today in history, The forty-sixth star is added to the U.S. flag, signifying Oklahoma’s admission to statehood in 1908.

Today in history, Glacier Bay National Monument is dedicated in Alaska in 1925.

Today in history, The Supreme Court outlaws sit-down strikes in 1939.

Today in history, The U.S. Supreme Court rules that a Virginia pool club can’t bar customers because of color in 1973.

Today in history, Debi Thomas (see picture below) becomes the first African-American to win a medal at the Winter Olympics in 1988.

Today in history, Coalition forces liberate Kuwait after seven months of occupation by the Iraqi army in 1991.

2/28/2021:

Today in history, Westminster Abbey, the most famous church in England, opens its doors in 1066.

Today in history, Thomas West (see picture below) is appointed governor of Virginia in 1610.

Today in history, Colonel Alexander Doniphan and his ragtag Missouri Mounted Volunteers ride to victory at the Battle of Sacramento, during the Mexican War in 1847.

Today in history, The territory of Colorado is established in 1861.

Today in history, After a 119-day siege by the Boers, the surrounded British troops in Ladysmith, South Africa, are relieved in 1900.

Today in history, Haiti becomes the first U.S. protectorate in 1916.

Today in history, The Japanese Army restores order in Tokyo and arrests officers involved in a coup in 1936.

Today in history, U.S. tanks break the natural defense line west of the Rhine and cross the Erft River in 1945.

Today in history, U.S. warplanes shoot down four Serb aircraft over Bosnia in the first NATO use of force in the troubled area in 1994.

Today in history 11/3/2020

Today in history, Leonardo da Vinci is commissioned to paint Lisa Gherardini (“Mona Lisa”) in 1507.

Today in history, The first Parliament for five years opens in England and the Commons put forward bills against abuses amongst the clergy and in the church courts in 1529.

Today in history, Thomas Paine is released from a Parisian jail with help from the American ambassador James Monroe in 1794. He was arrested for having offended the Robespierre faction.

Today in history, Ulysses S. Grant elected the 18th president of the United States in 1868.

Today in history, First automatic telephone exchange goes into operation in La Porte, Indiana in 1892.

Today in history, William McKinley is elected 25th president of the United States in 1896.

Today in history, The first all-metal plane flies near Issy, France, piloted by Ponche and Prinard in 1913.

Today in history, The Soviet Union launches Sputnik II with the dog Laika, the first animal in space, aboard in 1957.

Today in history, For the first time, residents of Washington, D.C., are allowed to vote in the U.S. presidential election in 1964.

Today in history, NASA launches Mariner 10, the first probe to reach Mercury in 1973.

Today in history 10/25/2020

Today in history, An English army under Henry V defeats the French at Agincourt, France in 1415. The French had out numbered Henry’s troops 60,000 to 12,000 but British longbows turned the tide of the battle.

Today in history, George III of England crowned in 1760.

Today in history, During the Crimean War, a brigade of British light infantry is destroyed by Russian artillery as they charge down a narrow corridor in full view of the Russians in 1854.

Today in history, German pilot Rudolf von Eschwege shoots down his first enemy plane, a Nieuport 12 of the Royal Naval Air Service over Bulgaria in 1916.

Today in history, The Teapot Dome scandal comes to public attention as Senator Thomas J. Walsh of Montana, subcommittee chairman, reveals the findings of the past 18 months of investigation in 1923. His case will result in the conviction of Harry F. Sinclair of Mammoth Oil, and later Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall, the first cabinet member in American history to go to jail. The scandal, named for the Teapot Dome oil reserves in Wyoming, involved Fall secretly leasing naval oil reserve lands to private companies.

Today in history, The Japanese are defeated in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the world’s largest sea engagement in 1944. From this point on, the depleted Japanese Navy increasingly resorts to the suicidal attacks of Kamikaze fighters.

Today in history, Chinese Communist Forces launch their first-phase offensive across the Yalu River into North Korea in 1950.

Today in history, President Eisenhower conducts the first televised Cabinet meeting in 1954.

Today in history, Adlai Stevenson shows photos to the UN Security Council that prove Soviet missiles have been installed in Cuba in 1962.

Today in history, 1,800 U.S. troops and 300 Caribbean troops land on Grenada in 1983. U.S. forces soon turn up evidence of a strong Cuban and Soviet presence–large stores of arms and documents suggesting close links to Cuba.

Today in history 10/11/2020

Today in history, The Catholics defeat the Protestants at Kappel during Switzerland’s second civil war in 1531.

Today in history, Charles V of Milan puts his son Philip in control in 1540.

Today in history, George II of England crowned in 1727.

Today in history, In graditude for putting down a rebellion in the streets of Paris, France’s National Convention appoints Napoleon Bonaparte (see picture below) second in command of the Army of the Interior in 1795.

Today in history, Outlaw Wild Bill Longley, who killed at least a dozen men, is hanged, but it took two tries; on the first try, the rope slipped and his knees drug the ground in 1877.

Today in history, South African Boers, settler from the Netherlands, declare war on Great Britain in 1899.

Today in history, In the Battle of Cape Esperance, near the Solomon Islands, U.S. cruisers and destroyers decisively defeat a Japanese task force in a night surface encounter in 1942.

Today in history, Negotiations between Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek and Communist leader Mao Tse-tung break down in 1945. Nationalist and Communist troops are soon engaged in a civil war.

Today in history, The Federal Communications Commission authorizes the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) to begin commercial color TV broadcasts in 1950.

Today in history, Astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan (see picture below), part of the crew of Space Shuttle Challenger, becomes the first American woman to walk in space in 1984.

Today in history 10/9/2020

Today in history, The Temple of Apollo (see picture below) is dedicated on the Palatine Hill in Rome in 0028.

Today in history, Henry VI of England restored to the throne in 1470.

Today in history, Austrian and Russian troops enter Berlin and begin burning structures and looting in 1760.

Today in history, Americans begin shelling the British surrounded at Yorktown in 1781.

Today in history, The first Norwegian immigrants to America arrive on the sloop Restaurationen in 1825.

Today in history, The Washington Monument (see picture below), designed by Robert Mills, opens to the public in 1888.

Today in history, In Marseilles, a Macedonian revolutionary associated with Croat terrorists in Hungary assassinates King Alexander of Yugoslavia and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou in 1934. The two had been on a tour of European capitals in quest of an alliance against Nazi Germany. The assassinations bring the threat of war between Yugoslavia and Hungary, but confrontation is prevented by the League of Nations.

Today in history, Eugene O’Neill’s play The Iceman Cometh opens at the Martin Beck Theatre in New York in 1946.

Today in history, Harvard Law School begins admitting women in 1949.

Today in history, The president of South Korea, Doo Hwan Chun, with his cabinet and other top officials are scheduled to lay a wreath on a monument in Rangoon, Burma, when a bomb explodes in 1983. Hwan had not yet arrived so escaped injury, but 17 Koreans–including the deputy prime minister and two other cabinet members–and two Burmese are killed. North Korea is blamed.