Today In History

In 1492: Christopher Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, on a voyage to the Americas.

In 1914: Germany declared war on France.

In 1943: Gen. George S. Patton slapped a private at an army hospital in Sicily, accusing him of cowardice. Patton was later ordered by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to apologize.

In 1948: Whittaker Chambers, a former Communist, publicly accused former State Department official Alger Hiss of having been a Communist agent, a charge Hiss denied.

In 1981: U.S. air traffic controllers went on strike, despite a warning from President Reagan they would be fired.