This Day In History

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history: 1814 – Napoleon Bonaparte abdicates his throne and is banished to the Mediterranean island of Elba (More info) 1945 – American forces liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany (More info)

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history: 1513 – Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León first sights land in what is now Florida (More info) 1917 – President Woodrow Wilson asks the US Congress for a declaration of war on Germany (More info)

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history: 1867 – The North America Act is passed by the British parliament, creating the dominion of Canada (More info) 1929 – Herbert Hoover becomes the first president to have a telephone installed in the Oval Office (More info)

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history: 1775 – Patrick Henry opposes British policy by declaring, “Give me liberty, or give me death!” (More info) 1839 – The initials “O.K.” are first published in the Boston Morning Post (More info)

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history: 1804 – Napoleonic Code is approved in France, giving the country its first post-revolutionary set of laws concerning property, colonial affairs, the family, and individual rights (More info) 1963 – Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco Bay closes down and transfers its last prisoners (More info)

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history: 1852 – Harriet Beecher Stowe’s ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ is published (More info) 1854 – Members of the Whig Party splinter off into a new group they call the Republican Party (More info)

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history: 1920 – The United States Senate rejects the Treaty of Versailles for the second time (More info) 1931 – The Nevada legislature legalizes gambling in an attempt to lift the state out of the hard times caused by the Great Depression (More info)

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history: 1968 – American troops kill between 200 and 500 Vietnamese civilians during the My Lai massacre (More info) 1935 – Adolf Hitler cancels the military clauses of the Treaty of Versailles (More info)

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history: 44 BC – On the “Ides of March,” Julius Caesar is stabbed to death in the senate house by a group of conspirators led by Cimber, Casca, Cassius, and Marcus Junius Brutus (More info) 1493 – Christopher Columbus returns to Spain after his first trip to the Americas (More info)

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history: 1794 – Eli Whitney is granted a patent for the cotton gin (More info) 1950 – The FBI’s institutes the ‘Ten Most Wanted’ list in an effort to spotlight dangerous fugitives (More info)

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history: 1781 – William Herschel discovers Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun (More info) 1865 – The Confederate States of America agree to the use of African-American troops (More info)

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history: 1912 – The Girl Guides — later renamed the Girl Scouts of the USA — are founded (More info) 1933 – Franklin D. Roosevelt addresses the nation in the first of his “fireside chats” (More info)