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Today in History.



0917
A Byzantine counter-offensive is routed by Syeon at Anchialus, Bulgaria.
1619
The first group of twenty Africans is brought to Jamestown, Virginia.
1667
John Milton publishes Paradise Lost, an epic poem about the fall of Adam and Eve.
1741
Danish navigator Vitus Jonas Bering, commissioned by Peter the Great of Russia to find land connecting Asia and North America, discovers America.
1794
American General "Mad Anthony" Wayne defeats the Ohio Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in the Northwest territory, ending Indian resistance in the area.
1847
General Winfield Scott wins the Battle of Churubusco on his drive to Mexico City.
1904
Dublin's Abbey Theatre is founded, an outgrowth of the Irish Literary Theatre founded in 1899 by William Butler Yeats and Lady Gregory.
1908
The American Great White Fleet arrives in Sydney, Australia, to a warm welcome.
1913
700 feet above Buc, France, parachutist Adolphe Pegoud becomes the first person to jump from an airplane and land safely.
1914
Russia wins an early victory over Germany at Gumbinnen.
1940
After a previous machine gun attack failed, exiled Russian Leon Trotsky is assassinated in Mexico City, with an alpine ax to the back of the head.
1940
Radar is used for the first time, by the British during the Battle of Britain. Also on this day, in a radio broadcast, Winston Churchill makes his famous homage to the Royal Air Force: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
1941
Adolf Hitler authorizes the development of the V-2 missile.
1944
United States and British forces close the pincers on German units in the Falaise-Argentan pocket in France.
1953
USSR publicly acknowledges it tested a hydrogen bomb eight days earlier.
1955
Hundreds killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco and Algeria.
1960
USSR recovers 2 dogs, Belka and Strelka, the first animals to be launched into orbit and returned alive (Sputnik 5).
1961
East Germany begins erecting a wall along western border to replace barbed wire put up Aug 13; US 1st Battle Group, 18th Infantry Division arrives in West Berlin.
1964
US President Lyndon Baines Johnson signs the Economic Opportunity Act, an anti-poverty measure totaling nearly $1 billion, as part of his War on Poverty.
1968
Some 650,000 Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia to quell reformers there.

1971
The Cambodian military launches a series of operations against the Khmer Rouge.
1974
US Vice President Gerald Ford, who had replaced Spiro Agnew, assumes the Office of the President after Richard Nixon resigns; Ford names Nelson Rockefeller as VP.
1978
NASA launches Viking 1; with Viking 2, launched a few days later, provided high-resolution mapping of Mars, revolutionizing existing views of the planets.
1979
The Penmanshiel Diversion on the the East Coast Main Line rail route between England and Scotland opens, replacing the 134-year-old Penmanshiel Tunnel that had collapsed in March.
1980
UN Security Council condemns Israel's declaration that all of Jerusalem is its capital; vote is 14-0, with US abstaining.

1982
A multinational force including 800 US Marines lands in Beirut, Lebanon, to oversee Palestinian withdrawal during the Lebanese Civil War.
1986
Part-time mail carrier Patrick Sherrill shoots 20 fellow workers killing 14 at Edmond Okla., the first mass shooting by an individual in an office environment in the US. His actions give rise to the phrase "going postal," for sudden violent outbursts.
1990
Iraq moves Western hostages to military installations to use them as human shields against air attacks by a US-led multinational coalition.
1991
After an attempted coup in the Soviet Union, Estonia declares independence from the USSR.
1993
Secret negotiations in Norway lead to agreement on the Oslo Peace Accords, an attempt to resolve the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

1994
Miracle, the Sacred White Buffalo, born on Heider Farm near Janesville, Wisc. The first white (not albino) buffalo born since 1933, she was a important religious symbol for many US and Canadian Indian tribes.
1998
US launches cruise missile attacks against alleged al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical plant in Sudan in retaliation for the Aug. 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
1998
The Supreme Court of Canada rules Quebec cannot legally secede from Canada without the federal government's approval.
2002
A group of Iraqis opposed to the regime of Saddam Hussein seize the Iraqi Embassy in Berlin; after five hours they release their hostages and surrender.



Joke of the Day

Q: How do you get 500 old cows in a barn?



A: Put up a Bingo sign.