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Today in History

0069
Vespasian, a Roman army leader, is hailed as a Roman emperor by the Egyptian legions.
1543
England and Scotland sign the Peace of Greenwich.
1596
An English fleet under the Earl of Essex, Lord Howard of Effingham and Francis Vere capture and sack Cadiz, Spain.
1690
Led by Marshall Luxembourg, the French defeat the forces of the Grand Alliance at Fleurus in the Netherlands.
1777
British troops depart from their base at the Bouquet River to head toward Ticonderoga, New York.

1798
Napoleon Bonaparte takes Alexandria, Egypt.
1838
Charles Darwin presents a paper on his theory of evolution to the Linnean Society in London.
1862
Union artillery stops a Confederate attack at Malvern Hill, Virginia.
1863
In the first day's fighting at Gettysburg, Federal forces retreat through the town and dig in at Cemetery Ridge and Cemetery Hill.
1867
Canada, by the terms of the British North America Act, becomes an independent dominion.

1876
Montenegro declares war on the Turks.
1898
American troops take San Juan Hill and El Caney, Cuba, from the Spaniards.
1916
The Battle of the Somme begins. Approximately 30,000 men are killed on the first day, two-thirds of them British.
1942
Axis troops capture Sevastopol, Crimea, in the Soviet Union.
1945
The New York State Commission Against Discrimination is established--the first such agency in the United States.

1950
American ground troops arrive in South Korea to halt the advancing North Korean army.
1961
British troops land in Kuwait to aid against Iraqi threats.
1963
The U.S. postmaster introduces the ZIP code.
1966
The U.S. Marines launch Operation Holt in an attempt to finish off a Vietcong battalion in Thua Thien Province in Vietnam.



Joke of the Day

What do you get when you cross a dick with a potato?

A dictator!