Today In History
In 1630: The Massachusetts village of Shawmut changed its name to Boston.
In 1810: Mexico began its revolt against Spanish rule.
In 1893: Hundreds of thousands of settlers swarmed onto a section of land in Oklahoma known as the “Cherokee Strip.”
In 1940: President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law the Selective Training and Service Act, which set up the first peacetime military draft in U.S. history.
In 1974: President Ford announced a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam War deserters and draft-evaders.
In 1982: The massacre of hundreds of Palestinian men, women and children by Lebanese Christian militiamen began in west Beirut’s Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps.