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Today in History.

0240
Eratosthenes estimates the circumference of Earth using two sticks.
1778
General George Washington's troops finally leave Valley Forge after a winter of training.
1821
The Ottomans defeat the Greeks at the Battle of Dragasani.
1846
The New York Knickerbocker Club plays the New York Club in the first baseball game at Elysian Field, Hoboken, New Jersey.
1861
Virginians, in what will soon be West Virginia, elect Francis Pierpont as their provisional governor.
1862
President Abraham Lincoln outlines his Emancipation Proclamation. News of the document reaches the South.
1864
The USS Kearsarge sinks the CSS Alabama off of Cherbourg, France.
1867
Mexican Emperor Maximilian is executed.
1885
The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York City from France.
1903
The young school teacher, Benito Mussolini, is placed under investigation by police in Bern, Switzerland.
1919
Mustafa Kemal founds the Turkish National Congress at Ankara and denounces the Treaty of Versailles.
1933
France grants Leon Trotsky political asylum.
1934
The National Archives and Records Administration is established.
1937
The town of Bilbao, Spain, falls to the Nationalist forces.
1942
Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in Washington D.C. to discuss the invasion of North Africa with President Franklin Roosevelt.

1944
U.S. Navy carrier-based planes shatter the remaining Japanese carrier forces in the Battle of the Marianas.
1951
President Harry S. Truman signs the Universal Military Training and Service Act, which extends Selective Service until July 1, 1955 and lowers the draft age to 18.
1958
Nine entertainers refuse to answer a congressional committee's questions on communism.
1961
Kuwait regains complete independence from Britain.
1963
Soviet cosmonaut, Valentina Tereshkova, becomes the first woman in space.

1965
Air Marshall Nguyen Cao Ky becomes South Vietnam's youngest premier at age 34.
1968
Over 50,000 people march on Washington, D.C. to support the Poor People's Campaign.
1973
The Case-Church Amendment prevents further U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia.
1987
The U.S. Supreme Court voids the Louisiana law requiring schools to teach creationism.
1995
The Richmond Virginia Planning Commission approves plans to place a memorial statue of tennis professional Arthur Ashe.




Joke of the Day.

A man goes to his doctor complaining about migraines. His doctor tells him, "I also suffer from the same ailment. Every time I get one, I give my wife oral sex. When she has an orgasm, she tightens her legs around my head which gets rid of the pain. You should try it sometime."


Two weeks later on a return visit, the patient tells his doctor, "Your suggestion worked and I'd like to tell you that you have a very nice house."