This Day in History

Toby Keith has his third straight #1 country album with Shock’n Y’all

12 Nov 1439

Plymouth England becomes the first town incorporated by the English Parliament.

12 Nov 1555

The English Parliament re-establishes Catholicism.

12 Nov 1614

Treaty of Xanten Guliks-Kleefse War victory ends

12 Nov 1682

Swedish king Karel XI establishes absolute monarchy

More History

Voyager I flies near Saturn

More than three years after its launch the U.S. planetary probe Voyager 1 edges within 77000 miles of Saturn the second-largest planet in the solar system. T...

Japanese war criminals sentenced

An international war crimes tribunal in Tokyo passes death sentences on seven Japanese military and government officials including General Hideki Tojo who ser...

First meteor shower on record

Andrew Ellicott Douglass an early American astronomer born in Vermont witnesses the Leonids meteor shower from a ship off the Florida Keys. Douglass who late...

Akihito enthroned as emperor of Japan

Crown Prince Akihito the 125th Japanese monarch along an imperial line dating back to 660 B.C. is enthroned as emperor of Japan two years after the death of h...

Ellis Island closes

On this day in 1954 Ellis Island the gateway to America shuts it doors after processing more than 12 million immigrants since opening in 1892. Today an esti...

Seymour Hersh breaks My Lai story

Seymour Hersh an independent investigative journalist in a cable filed through Dispatch News Service and picked up by more than 30 newspapers reveals the ext...

Nixon sets new deadline for next troop withdrawal

President Richard Nixon sets February 1 1972 as the deadline for the withdrawal of an additional 45000 U.S. troops. U.S. troop withdrawals had begun in the ...

Pudge Heffelfinger becomes first pro football player

On November 12 1892 William Pudge Heffelfinger becomes the first professional football player when Pittsburghs Allegheny Athletic Associ...

Carter shuts down oil imports from Iran

On this day in 1979 President Jimmy Carter responds to a potential threat to national security by stopping the importation of petroleum from Iran.Earlier that ...

U.S. reconsiders war with Plains Indians

After more than a decade of ineffective military campaigns and infamous atrocities a conference begins at Fort Laramie to discuss alternative solutions to the ...

DeWitt Wallace, founder of Reader’s Digest, is born

On this day in 1889 DeWitt Wallace is born in St. Paul Minnesota to a minister and his wife.After high school Wallace worked in a bank and began keeping an ...

William Holden, star of Sunset Boulevard and Network, dies

On this day in 1981 the actor William Holden who starred in such movies as Sunset Boulevard Stalag 17 and Network dies at the age of 63 in his Santa Monica...

Plane crashes in Rockaway, New York

An American Airlines flight out of John F. Kennedy (JFK) Airport in New York City crashes into a Queens neighborhood after takeoff on this day in 2001 killing ...

Scott Peterson convicted

On this day in 2004 Scott Peterson is convicted of murdering his wife Laci and their unborn son. A jury of six men and six women delivered the verdict 23 mont...

High school sweethearts murder their newborn child

Young lovers Amy Grossberg and Brian Peterson check into a Delaware motel. During their stay Grossberg gave birth to a 6 pound 2 ounce baby. When the infant w...

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