Today in History ...

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1401 – Turco-Mongol emperor Timur sacks Damascus. 1603 – James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England and Ireland, upon the death of Elizabeth I. 1603 – Tokugawa Ieyasu is granted the title of shogun from Emperor Go-Yōzei, and establishes the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo, Japan. 1663 – The Province of Carolina is granted by charter to eight Lords Proprietor in reward for their assistance in restoring Charles II of England to the throne. 1707 – The Acts of Union 1707 are signed, officially uniting the Kingdoms and parliaments of England and Scotland to create the Kingdom of Great Britain. 1720 – Count Frederick of Hesse-Kassel is elected King of Sweden by the Riksdag of the Estates, after his consort Ulrika Eleonora abdicated the throne on 29 February. She had been wanting to rule jointly with her husband in the same manner as William and Mary in the British Isles, but after the Riksdag of the Estates said no to this, she chose to abdicate the throne in his favour instead. 1721 – Johann Sebastian Bach dedicated six concertos to Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Schwedt, now commonly called the Brandenburg Concertos, BWV 1046–1051. 1731 – Naturalization of Hieronimus de Salis Parliamentary Act is passed. 1765 – American Revolution: The Kingdom of Great Britain passes the Quartering Act, which requires the Thirteen Colonies to house British troops. 1829 – Catholic emancipation: The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, allowing Catholics to serve in Parliament. 1832 – In Hiram, Ohio, a group of men beat and tar and feather Mormon leader Joseph Smith. 1837 – Canada gives African Canadian men the right to vote. 1854 – Slavery is abolished in Venezuela. 1860 – Sakuradamon Incident: Assassination of Japanese Chief Minister (Tairō) Ii Naosuke. 1869 – The last of Titokowaru's forces surrendered to the New Zealand government, ending his uprising. 1878 – The British frigate HMS Eurydice sinks, killing more than 300. 1882 – Robert Koch announces the discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis. 1885 – Sino-French War: Chinese victory in the Battle of Bang Bo on the Tonkin–Guangxi border. 1896 – A. S. Popov makes the first radio signal transmission in history. 1900 – Mayor of New York City Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground "Rapid Transit Railroad" that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn. 1907 – The first issue of the Georgian Bolshevik newspaper Dro is published. 1922 – Irish War of Independence: In Belfast, Northern Irish policemen break into the home of a Catholic family and shoot eight males inside, killing six. 1927 – Nanking Incident: Foreign warships bombard Nanjing, China, in defense of the foreign citizens within the city. 1934 – United States Congress passes the Tydings–McDuffie Act, allowing the Philippines to become a self-governing commonwealth. 1944 – Ardeatine massacre: German troops murder 335 Italian civilians in Rome. 1944 – World War II: In an event later dramatized in the movie The Great Escape, 76 Allied prisoners of war begin breaking out of the German camp Stalag Luft III. 1946 – The British Cabinet Mission, consisting of Lord Pethick-Lawrence, Sir Stafford Cripps and A. V. Alexander, arrives in India to discuss and plan for the transfer of power from the British Raj to Indian leadership. 1958 – Rock 'n' roll teen idol Elvis Presley is drafted in the U.S. Army. 1959 – The Party of the African Federation is launched by Léopold Sédar Senghor and Modibo Keïta. 1965 – NASA spacecraft Ranger 9, equipped to convert its signals into a form suitable for showing on domestic television, brings images of the Moon into ordinary homes before crash landing. 1972 – The United Kingdom imposes direct rule over Northern Ireland. 1973 – Kenyan athlete Kip Keino defeats Jim Ryun at the first-ever professional track meet in Los Angeles. 1976 – In Argentina, the armed forces overthrow the constitutional government of President Isabel Perón and start a 7-year dictatorial period self-styled the National Reorganization Process. Since 2006, a public holiday known as Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice is held on this day. 1980 – Archbishop Óscar Romero is killed while celebrating Mass in San Salvador. 1986 – The Loscoe gas explosion leads to new UK laws on landfill gas migration and gas protection on landfill sites. 1989 – Exxon Valdez oil spill: In Prince William Sound in Alaska, the Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels (38,000 m3) of crude oil after running aground. 1993 – Discovery of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9. 1998 – Jonesboro massacre: Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden, aged 11 and 13 respectively, fire upon teachers and students at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas; five people are killed and ten are wounded. 1998 – A tornado sweeps through Dantan in India, killing 250 people and injuring 3000 others. 1998 – First Computer-assisted Bone Segment Navigation, performed at the University of Regensburg, Germany 1999 – Mont Blanc Tunnel fire kills 39 people. 1999 – Kosovo War: NATO commences aerial bombardment against Yugoslavia, marking the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country. 2000 – S&P 500 index reaches an intraday high of 1,552.87, a peak that, due to the collapse of the dot-com bubble, it will not reach again for another seven-and-a-half years. 2003 – The Arab League votes 21–1 in favor of a resolution demanding the immediate and unconditional removal of U.S. and British soldiers from Iraq. 2008 – Bhutan officially becomes a democracy, with its first ever general election. 2014 – A train overruns the buffers at Chicago O'Hare Airport station, injuring 32 people. 2015 – Germanwings Flight 9525 crashes in the French Alps in an apparent mass murder-suicide, killing all 150 people on board.