GMT

Today in History


1486
Henry VII marries Elizabeth of York.
1701
Frederick III, the elector of Brandenburg, becomes king of Prussia.
1778
Captain James Cook discovers the Hawaiian Islands, naming them the 'Sandwich Islands' after the First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Sandwich.
1836
Jim Bowie arrives at the Alamo to assist its Texas defenders.
1862
John Tyler, former president of the U.S., is buried at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.

1902
The Isthmus Canal Commission in Washington shifts its support from Nicaragua to Panama as a favored canal site.
1910
Aviator Eugene Ely performs his first successful take off and landing from a ship in San Francisco.
1916
The Russians force the Turkish 3rd Army back to Erzurum.
1942
General MacArthur repels the Japanese in Bataan. The United States takes the lead in the Far East war criminal trials.
1945
The German Army launches its second attempt to relieve the besieged city of Budapest from the advancing Red Army.

1948
Gandhi breaks a 121-hour fast after halting Muslim-Hindu riots.
1962
The United States begins spraying foliage with herbicides in South Vietnam, in order to reveal the whereabouts of Vietcong guerrillas.
1964
Plans are disclosed for the World Trade Center in New York.
1978
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) isolate the cause of Legionnaire's disease.
1991
Iraq starts firing Scud missiles at Israeli cities.


Joke of the Day

A man walks over the Red Light District in Amsterdam when suddenly he notices a fine looking hooker looking at him. He stops, bangs on the window and asks, "So, what does this cost?"
The hooker replies, "25 dollars."
The man said, "Hmm, that's not a lot of money for insulated windows."