Today In History

In 1920: Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which guaranteed the right of all American women to vote.

In 1587: Virginia Dare became the first child of English parents to be born on American soil, on what is now Roanoke Island, N.C.

In 1846: U.S. forces led by Gen. Stephen W. Kearney captured Santa Fe, N.M.

In 1914: President Wilson issued his Proclamation of Neutrality, aimed at keeping America out of World War I. In 1963: James Meredith became the first black to graduate from the University of Mississippi.

In 1991: Soviet hard-liners launched a coup aimed at toppling President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, who was vacationing in the Crimea. (The coup failed three days later.)

In 1997: Beth Ann Hogan became the first coed in the Virginia Military Institute’s 158-year history.