December 3rd, 2008

Today in History

1999:
NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere.

1971:
Pakistan launches airstrikes on Indian airfields. Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 begins as India retaliates with a massive invasion of East Pakistan.

1967:
The luxury train 20th Century Limited completes its last run from New York City, New York to Chicago, Illinois (the train was inaugurated on June 15, 1902).

1944:
Civil war breaks out in a newly-liberated Greece, between Communists and royalists.

1854:
Eureka Stockade: More than twenty goldminers at Ballarat, Australia were killed by state troopers in an uprising over mining licences. Claimed by many to be the birth of Australian democracy.