Today In History

In 1247: The button hole was invented.

In 1671: Colonel Thomas Blood disguised himself as a parson and gained entry to the Tower of London. That night, with several accomplices, he stole the crown jewels. He and his gang were captured, but Blood was granted a pardon.

In 1754: The first American newspaper cartoon was published.

In 1926: Americans Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett became the first men to make an airplane flight over the North Pole.

In 1961: Federal Communications Commission chairman Newton N. Minow condemned television programming as a “vast wasteland.”

In 1970: During a Vietnam War protest in Washington, President Nixon visited protesters at the Lincoln Memorial early in the morning and chatted with them for an hour.