Today In History

1792: Congress passed the Coinage Act, authorizing establishment of the U.S. Mint.

1865: Confederate President Davis and most of his Cabinet fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va.

1917: President Wilson asked Congress to declare war against Germany, saying, “The world must be made safe for democracy.”

1932: Aviator Charles A. Lindbergh and Dr. John F. Condon turned over $50,000 in ransom to an unidentified man in a New York City cemetery in the Bronx, in exchange for Lindbergh’s kidnapped son. (The infant, however, was not returned, and was found dead the following month.)

1982: Several thousand troops from Argentina seized the disputed Falkland Islands, located in the south Atlantic, from Britain. (Britain seized the islands back the following June.)