October 14th, 2008

Today in History

1947:
Chuck Yeager flies a Bell X-1 faster than the speed of sound, the first man to do so in level flight.

1967:
Vietnam War: Folk singer Joan Baez is arrested in a blockade of the military induction center in Oakland, California.

1949:
Eleven leaders of the U.S. Communist Party are convicted, after a nine-month trial, of conspiring to advocate the violent overthrow of the U.S. government. Ten defendants are sentenced to 5 years in prison each, and the eleventh to 3 years. The Supreme Court upheld the convictions on June 4, 1951.

1981:
Vice President Hosni Mubarak is elected President of Egypt one week after Anwar Sadat was assassinated.

1066:
In England on Senlac Hill, seven miles from Hastings, the forces of William the Conqueror defeat the Saxon army and kill King Harold II of England.