Today In History

In 1819: Queen Victoria was born in London.

In 1830: The first passenger railroad in the United States began service between Baltimore and Elliott’s Mills, Md.

In 1883: The Brooklyn Bridge, linking Brooklyn and Manhattan, was opened to traffic.

In 1935: The first major league baseball game to be played at night took place at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field as the Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1.

In 1941: The German battleship Bismarck sank the British dreadnought Hood in the North Atlantic.

In 1962: Astronaut Scott Carpenter, aboard Aurora 7, became the second American to orbit the Earth.

In 1976: Britain and France opened transatlantic Concorde service to Washington.

In 1977: In a surprise move, the Kremlin ousted Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny from the Communist Party’s ruling Politburo.

In 1980: Iran rejected a call by the World Court in The Hague to release the American Embassy hostages.