Today In History

In 1589: Catherine de Medici of France died at age 69.

In 1781: A British naval expedition led by Benedict Arnold burned Richmond, Va.

In 1895: French Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, convicted of treason, was publicly stripped of his rank. (He was ultimately vindicated.)

In 1896: An Austrian newspaper (“Wiener Presse”) reported the discovery by German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen of a type of radiation that came to be known as “X-rays.”

In 1925: Nellie T. Ross succeeded her late husband as governor of Wyoming, becoming the first female governor in U.S. history.

In 1933: The 30th president of the United States, Calvin Coolidge, died in Northampton, Mass., at age 60.

In 1943: Educator and scientist George Washington Carver died in Tuskegee, Ala., at age 81.

In 1949: In his State of the Union address, President Truman labeled his administration the “Fair Deal.”

In 1970: Joseph A. Yablonski, an unsuccessful candidate for the presidency of the United Mine Workers, was found murdered with his wife and daughter at their Clarksville, Pa., home.

In 1972: President Nixon ordered development of the space shuttle.

In 1993: the state of Washington executed Westley Allan Dodd, an admitted child sex killer, in America’s first legal hanging since 1965.