TODAY IN HISTORY

1862

Union forces led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeated the Confederates at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee.

1915

Jazz singer-songwriter Billie Holiday, also known as “Lady Day,” was born in Philadelphia.

1922

The Teapot Dome scandal had its beginnings as Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall signed a secret deal to lease U.S. Navy petroleum reserves in Wyoming and California to his friends, oilmen Harry F. Sinclair and Edward L. Doheny, in exchange for cash gifts.

1927

The image and voice of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover were transmitted live from Washington to New York in the first successful long-distance demonstration of television.

1945

During World War II, American planes intercepted and effectively destroyed a Japanese fleet, which included the battleship Yamato, that was headed to Okinawa on a suicide mission.

1966

The U.S. Navy recovered a hydrogen bomb that the U.S. Air Force had lost in the Mediterranean Sea off Spain following a B-52 crash.

Birthdays

Country singer Bobby Bare is 86. Movie director Francis Ford Coppola is 82. Actor Jackie Chan is 67. Actor Russell Crowe is 57.