Today in history

In 1535

Sir Thomas More was executed in London after being convicted of treason.

In 1777

American forces abandoned Fort Ticonderoga to English Gen. John Burgoyne in the Revolutionary War.

In 1854

the first official meeting of the Republican Party took place in Jackson, Mich.

In 1885

French scientist Louis Pasteur gave the first successful anti-rabies inoculation to a boy who had been bitten by an infected dog.

In 1917,

during World War I, Arab forces led by T.E. Lawrence captured the port of Aqaba from the Turks.

In 1923

the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was formed.

In 1928

the first all-talking movie feature, “The Lights of New York,” was previewed in New York.

In 1933

the first All-Star baseball game was played, in Comiskey Park; the American League defeated the National League 4-2.

In 1944,

169 people died in a fire that broke out in the main tent of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Hartford, Conn.

In 1945

President Harry Truman signed an executive order establishing the Medal of Freedom. Also in 1945 Nicaragua became the first nation to formally accept the United Nations charter.

In 1957

Althea Gibson became the first black tennis player to win a Wimbledon singles title.

In 1967

the Biafran war erupted; it lasted 21⁄2 years and left 600,000 dead. In 1989 the U.S. Army destroyed its last Pershing 1A missiles at an ammunition plant in Karnack, Texas, under terms of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty.