TODAY IN HISTORY

1066

Normans under William the Conqueror defeated the English at the Battle of Hastings.

1586

Mary, Queen of Scots, went on trial in England, accused of committing treason against Queen Elizabeth I.

1939

A German U-boat torpedoed and sank the HMS Royal Oak, a British battleship anchored at Scapa Flow in Scotland’s Orkney Islands; 833 of the more than 1,200 men aboard were killed.

1944

German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel took his own life rather than face trial and certain execution for allegedly conspiring against Adolf Hitler.

1947

U.S. Air Force Capt. Charles E. Yeager became the first test pilot to break the sound barrier as he flew the experimental Bell XS-1 rocket plane over Muroc Dry Lake in California.

1964

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.