August 30th, 2008

Today in History

1918:
Fanya Kaplan, an assassin, shoots and seriously injures Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin. This, along with the assassination of Bolshevik senior official Moisei Uritsky days earlier, prompts the decree for Red Terror.

711:
K'inich K'an Joy Chitam, king of the Maya city of Palenque, disappears from history. He was probably taken prisoner by a rivalling city state.

1574:
Guru Ram Das became the Fourth Sikh Guru/Master

1963:
1963 - Hotline between U.S. and Soviet leaders goes into operation.

1873:
Austrian explorers Julius von Payer and Karl Weyprecht discover the archipelago of Franz Joseph Land in the Arctic Sea.