GMT

Toaday in History

0049
Julius Caesar leads his army across the Rubicon River, plunging Rome into civil war.
1843
Francis Scott Key, author of "The Star-Spangled Banner," dies in Baltimore.
1861
Alabama secedes from the Union.
1862
Lincoln accepts Simon Cameron's resignation as Secretary of War.
1887
At Fort Smith, Arkansas, hangman George Maledon dispatches four victims in a multiple hanging.

1904
British troops massacre 1,000 dervishes in Somaliland.
1916
Russian General Yudenich launches a WWI winter offensive and advances west.
1923
The French enter the town of Essen in the Ruhr valley, to extract Germany's resources as war payment.
1934
The German police raid the homes of dissident clergy in Berlin.
1940
Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., becomes the U.S. Army's first black general, his son would later become a general as well.

1941
Adolf Hitler orders forces to be prepared to enter North Africa to assist the Italian effort, marking the establishment of the Afrika Korps.
1942
Japan invades the Dutch East Indies at Borneo.
1943
The Soviet Red Army encircles Stalingrad.
1948
President Harry S. Truman proposes free, two-year community colleges for all who want an education.
1949
Negotiations in China between the Nationalists and Communists open as Tientsin is virtually lost to the Communists.

1964
A collection of previously unexhibited paintings by Pablo Picasso are displayed for the first time in Toronto.
1980
Honda announces it will build the first Japanese-owned passenger-car assembly plant in the United States--in Ohio.
1994
The Irish Government announces an end to a 15-year ban on broadcasting by the IRA and its political branch, Sinn Fein.
2003
Illinois Gov. George Ryan commutes the death sentences of 167 prisoners on the state's death row in the wake of allegations that Chicago police detective and commander Jon Burge tortured confessions from some 200 suspects over a 19 year period.


Joke of the Day


A Break In Two Places
I told the doctor I broke my leg in two places.
He told me to quit going to those places.