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Today in History

1681
The Treaty of Radzin ends a five year war between the Turks and the allied countries of Russia and Poland.
1745
England, Austria, Saxony and the Netherlands form an alliance against Russia.
1815
A rag-tag army under Andrew Jackson defeats the British on the fields of Chalmette in the Battle of New Orleans.
1871
Prussian troops begin to bombard Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.
1892
A coal mine explosion kills 100 in McAlister, Oklahoma.

1900
The Boers attack the British in Ladysmith, South Africa, but are turned back.
1908
A subway line opens linking the New York boroughs of Brooklyn and Manhattan.
1940
Great Britain begins rationing sugar, meat and butter.
1946
President Harry S. Truman vows to stand by the Yalta accord on self-determination for the Balkans.
1954
President Dwight Eisenhower proposes stripping convicted Communists of their U.S. citizenship.

1963
President John F. Kennedy attends the unveiling of the Mona Lisa.
1975
Ella T. Grasso becomes Governor of Connecticut, the first female governor in the US who did not come into office by succeeding her husband.
1979
The United States advises the Shah to leave Iran.
1982
AT&T agrees to divest 22 subdivisions as part of an antitrust agreement.
1994
Valeri Polyakov, a Russian cosmonaut leaves earth, bound for the Mir space station; he will spend a record 437 days in space.

2002
US President George W. Bush signs into law the No Child Left Behind Act, intended to improve America's educational system.
2004
The largest passenger ship in history, the RMS Queen Mary 2, is christened by Queen Elizabeth II, granddaughter of Queen Mary.
2011
An attempted assassination of Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords is part of a shooting spree in which Jared Lee Loughner kills 6 and wounds 13.

Joke of the Day

This guy was watching TV as his wife was out cutting the grass during the hot summer. He finally worked up the energy to go out and ask his wife what was for supper.
Well, his missus was quite irritated about him sitting in the air conditioned house all day while she did all the work, so she scolded him. "I can't believe you're asking me about supper right now! Imagine I'm out of town, go inside and figure dinner out yourself."



So he went back in the house and fixed himself a big steak, with potatoes, garlic bread and tall glass of iced tea.
The wife finally walked in about the time he was finishing up and asked him, "You fixed something to eat? So where is mine?"
"Huh? I thought you were out of town."