TODAY in HISTORY

Today is Tuesday, February 6, the 37th day of 2018. There are 328 days left in the year.

1649 The claimant King Charles II of England and Scotland is declared King of Great Britain, by the Parliament of Scotland. This move was not followed by the Parliament of England nor the Parliament of Ireland.

1778 American Revolutionary War: In Paris the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and France signaling official recognition of the new republic.

1806 Battle of San Domingo: British naval victory against the French in the Caribbean.

1819 Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles founds Singapore.

1900 The Permanent Court of Arbitration, an international arbitration court at The Hague, is created when the Senate of the Netherlands ratifies an 1899 peace conference decree.

1918 British women over the age of 30 get the right to vote.

1952 Elizabeth II becomes queen regnant of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms upon the death of her father, George VI. At the exact moment of succession, she was in a tree house at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya.

1976 In testimony before a United States Senate subcommittee, Lockheed Corporation president Carl Kotchian admits that the company had paid out approximately $ 3 million in bribes to the office of Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka.

1978 The Blizzard of 1978, one of the worst Nor’easters in New England history, hit the region, with sustained winds of 65 mph and snowfall of four inches an hour.

1981 The National Resistance Army of Uganda launches an attack on a Ugandan Army installation in the central Mubende District to begin the Ugandan Bush War.

1987 Justice Mary Gaudron becomes the first woman to be appointed to the High Court of Australia.

1988 Michael Jordan makes his signature slam dunk from the free throw line inspiring Air Jordan and the Jumpman logo.

1989 The Round Table Talks start in Poland, thus marking the beginning of the overthrow of communism in Eastern Europe.

1996 Birgenair Flight 301 crashed off the coast of the Dominican Republic, and all 189 people inside the airplane are killed. This is the worst accident/ incident involving a Boeing 757.

1998 Washington National Airport is renamed Ronald Reagan National Airport.