TODAY IN HISTORY

1819 Princess Alexandrina Victoria is born at Kensington Palace in London, the only daughter of the Duke of Kent. As Queen Victoria she reigned for 63 years, from 1837 until her death in 1901.

1830 The first passenger railroad in the United States begins service between Baltimore and Elliott’s Mills.

1883 The Brooklyn Bridge is opened, linking Manhattan to Brooklyn, New York.

1941 In World War II, the British Cruiser Hood is sunk by the German battleship Bismarck, killing all but three of the 1,418 men on board.

1944 Death of Hoàng Văn Thụ (born 1909), one of the early leaders of the Indochinese Communist Party, he was executed by the French. A member of the Tày ethnic group, he contributed considerably to the development of revolutionary forces in northern Việt Nam.

1962 Astronaut Scott Carpenter becomes the second American to orbit the Earth after he flew aboard Aurora 7.

1976 The British and French Concorde air-planes make their first commercial flights from London and Paris, respectively, to Washington Dulles International Airport in just under four hours.

2001 The Versailles wedding hall disaster in Jerusalem, Israel, kills 23 and injures over 200 in Israel's worst-ever civil disaster.

2007 The US Congress passes a spending bill, providing US$95 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. President Bush signed the bill the next day.

2008 In China rescuers rush to reach 24 coal miners, trapped underground by the earthquake almost two weeks ago, as the Government sharply raises the quake’s death toll, warning it can exceed 80,000.

2017 More than 30 migrants, mostly toddlers, drowned when about 200 people without life jackets fell from a boat into the sea off the Libyan coast before they could be hauled into waiting rescue boats. Another 82 were feared dead after falling into the water when their rubber boat deflated.

2020 The New York Times prints front page with nearly 1,000 names of people who have died from COVID-19, as the US toll nears 100,000.

2021 United States’ Tennessee becomes the latest state to ban teachers from talking about certain aspects of race and racism in public schools.

2022 Lamenting a uniquely American tragedy, an anguished and angry United States’ President Joe Biden delivers an urgent call for new restrictions on firearms after a gunman shot and killed at least 19 children at a Texas elementary school. AP/REUTERS/VNS