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1181: Richard I of England (a.k.a. Richard the Lionheart) is crowned at Westminster.
1260: The Mamluks defeat the Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut in Palestine, marking their first decisive defeat and the point of maximum expansion of the Mongol Empire.1658: During a raging tempest, Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England dies.
1777: The Flag of the United States is flown in battle for the first time at the Cooch's Bridge skirmish.1783: The American Revolution ends with the signing of the Treaty of Paris by the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain.
1838: Dressed in a sailor's uniform and carrying identification papers provided by a Free Black seaman, future abolitionist Frederick Douglass boards a train in Maryland on his way to freedom from slavery.
1855: In Nebraska, 700 soldiers under American General William S. Harney avenge the Grattan Massacre by attacking a Sioux village, killing 100 men, women, and children.1861: Confederate General Leonidas Polk invades neutral Kentucky, prompting the state legislature to ask for Union assistance.
1910: Kitty Carlisle, perpetual game show panelist, is born.
1913: Alan Ladd is born.
1923: Mort Walker is born. He is best known for creating Beetle Bailey and Hi & Lois. Did you know that Lois Flagston is Beetle Bailey's sister?
1929: The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches all time high at the time (381.17), which was shortly followed by the Crash of 1929.
1931: Albert DeSalvo, The Boston Strangler, is born.
1933: Yevgeniy Abalakov reaches the highest point of the Soviet Union - Communism Peak. (24,985 feet) The name was changed to Ismoil Somoni Peak in 1998.
1935: Sir Malcolm Campbell reaches 304.331 miles per hour on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, becoming the first person to drive an automobile over 300 mph.
1938: Eileen Brennan is born.1939: World War II begins when France, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia declare war on Germany after the invasion of Poland,
1943: Mainland Italy is invaded by Allied forces for the first time in World War II.
1943: Valerie Perrine is born. She played Lux Luthor's moll Miss Teschmacher in the first Superman movie.
1954: The German U-Boat U-505 began its move from a specially constructed dock to its final site at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry.1955: Steve Jones, guitarist for The Sex Pistols, is born.
1959: Merritt Butrick is born. He played Captain Kirk's ill-fated son in the Star Trek movies.
1965: Charlie Sheen is born.1976: The Viking 2 spacecraft lands at Utopia Planitia on Mars.
1995: eBay is founded.
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.
