Today in History
Historical Events
Argentina swears in first female elected President. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner became the first elected female President of Argentina.
Release of the first film in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The award winning movie called The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was directed by Peter Jackson and was based on J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
U.N. General Assembly adopts Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The document proclaimed, for the first time, fundamental human rights were to be universally protected.
First Nobel prize awarded. Five years after the death of Swedish chemist and inventor, Alfred Nobel's, the first Nobel Prizes were awarded.
Mississippi becomes 20th state. Mississippi becomes the 20th state in the United States.
Famous Births
Born on this day

Rod Blagojevich
1956
American politician, 40th Governor of Illinois

Olivier Messiaen
1908
French composer, ornithologist

C. Rajagopalachari
1878
Indian lawyer, politician, 1st Governor General of India

Emily Dickinson
1830
American poet

Ada Lovelace
1815
English mathematician
Famous Deaths
Died on this day

Augusto Pinochet
2006
Chilean general, politician, 30th President of Chile

Franjo Tuđman
1999
Croatian general, politician, 1st President of Croatia

Otis Redding
1967
American singer-songwriter, producer

Algernon Blackwood
1951
English author

Alfred Nobel
1896
Swedish chemist, engineer, invented dynamite, founded the Nobel Prize