1568: At the Battle of Langside the forces of Mary, Queen of Scots are defeated by a confederacy of Scottish Protestants under the command of James Stewart, Earl of Moray, her half-brother. He was always a little pouty that she got to be the monarch and he got squat.1648: The Red Fort is completed in Delhi, India.
1787: Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England with eleven ships full of convicts to establish a penal colony in Australia. Geez, I can't imagine that was a very pleasant crossing for the convicts.
1846: The United States declares war on Mexico, kicking off the Mexican-American War.1848: The first performance of Finland's national anthem.
1861: During the American Civil War, Queen Victoria issues a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognizes the Confederacy as having certain rights.
1865: The Battle of Palmito Ranch in southern Texas ends with a Confederate Victory, even thought Lee had already surrendered more than a month before.
1880: In his famous Menlo Park, New Jersey lab, Thomas Edison performs the first tests of an electric railway system.
1912: In the United Kingdom, the Royal Flying Corps (now the Royal Air Force) is formed.
1922: Bea Arthur is born. Here she is in the Star Wars Holiday Speciai.
1931: Jim Jones, cult leader, is born.
1939: The first commercial FM radio station in the US begins broadcasting out of Bloomingfield, CT. Holy cats it's Big D-103! That's WDRC and they're a huge oldies station down in Connecticut. I can get them in the clear all the way up into Vermont.1939: Harvey Keitel is born. Here's a scene from Reservoir Dogs in Russian.
1940: Germany gets its conquest of France underway as the Wehrmacht Meuse River. Churchill gives his "blood, toil, tears and sweat" speech to the House of Commons.
1941: Ritchie Valens is born.
1950: Stevie Wonder is born.1952: The Raja Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India, meets for the first times.
1958: During a visit to Caracas, Venezuela, Vice-President Nixon's car is attacked by student demonstrators.
1958: Velcro's trademark is registered.
1960: Hundreds of UC Berkely students congregate for a day of protests against the visit of the awkwardly-named House Un-American Activities Committee. 31 students are arrested and the Free Speech Movement is born.
1964: Stephen Colbert is born.
1981: Mehmet Ali Agca attempts to assassinate Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's square in Rome.
Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up.
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