Today in History
Historical Events
20 people die in the Cavalese cable car disaster. The wings of a low-flying U.S. military aircraft cut the aerial tramway's cables, causing the cabin to plunge 80 meters.
Paraguay's dictator, Alfredo Stroessner, is overthrown. Stroessner had come to power in 1954 with a military coup.
The deadliest snowstorm in history kills 4000. The Iran Blizzard lasted a week and left whole villages without survivors.
Yasser Arafat becomes leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Even after his death in 2011, Arafat remained a highly controversial figure, many Arabs praising him as a freedom fighter while many Israelis denouncing him as a terrorist.
Luna 9 touches down on the Moon. The unmanned Soviet spacecraft was the first to achieve a soft landing there.
Famous Births
Born on this day

Johnny "Guitar" Watson
1935
American singer, guitarist

Kenneth Anger
1927
American actor, director, author

Gertrude Stein
1874
American poet, art collector

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
1830
English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Felix Mendelssohn
1809
German pianist, composer, conductor
Famous Deaths
Died on this day

Frank Oppenheimer
1985
American physicist

Anna May Wong
1961
American actress

Woodrow Wilson
1924
American politician, 28th President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate

Gia Long
1820
Vietnamese Emperor

Johannes Gutenberg
1468
German publisher, invented the Printing press