On This Day in:

37 A.D. – The Roman Senate annuls Tiberius’ will and proclaims Caligula emperor.

1190 – Crusaders killed 57 Jews in Bury St. Edmonds England.

1532 – The English parliament banned payments by English church to Rome.

1541 – Hernando de Soto observed the first recorded flood of the Mississippi River.

1673 – Lord Berkley sold his half of New Jersey to the Quakers.

1692 – William Penn was deprived of his governing powers.

1766 – Britain repealed the Stamp Act.

1818 – The U.S. Congress approved the first pensions for government service.

1834 – The first railroad tunnel in the U.S. was completed. The work was in Pennsylvania.

1835 – Charles Darwin left Santiago Chile on his way to Portillo Pass.

1850 – Henry Wells & William Fargo founded American Express.

1865 – The Congress of the Confederate States of America adjourned for the last time.

1874 – Hawaii signed a treaty giving exclusive trading rights with the islands to the U.S.

1881 – Barnum and Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth opened in Madison Square Gardens.

1891 – Britain became linked to the continent of Europe by telephone.

1899 – Phoebe, a moon of the planet Saturn, was discovered.

1902 – In Turkey, the Sultan granted a German syndicate the first concession to access Baghdad by rail.

1909 – Einar Dessau of Denmark used a short wave transmitter to become the first person to broadcast as a 'ham' operator.

1910 – The first opera by a U.S. composer performed at the Met in New York City.

1911 – Theodore Roosevelt opened the Roosevelt Dam in Arizona. It was the largest dam in the U.S. at the time.

1913 – Greek King George I was killed by an assassin. Constantine I succeeded him.

1916 – Russia countered the Verdun assault with an attack at Lake Naroch. The Russians lost 100,000 men and the Germans lost 20,000.

1917 – The Germans sank the U.S. ships, City of Memphis, Vigilante and the Illinois, without any warning.

1921 – The steamer 'Hong Koh' ran aground off of Swatow China. Over

1,000 people were killed.

1922 – Mohandas K. Gandhi was sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience in India. He served only 2 years of the sentence.

1922 – Princeton and Yale played the first intercollegiate indoor polo championship.

1931 – Schick Inc. displayed the first electric shaver.

1937 – More than 400 people, mostly children, were killed in a gas explosion at a school in New London, TX.

1938 – Mexico took control of all foreign-owned oil properties on its soil.

1938 – New York first required serological blood tests of pregnant women.

1940 – The soap opera 'Light of the World' was first heard on NBC radio.

1940 – Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini held a meeting at the Brenner Pass. The Italian dictator agreed to join in Germany's war against France and Britain during the meeting.

1942 – The third military draft began in the U.S. because of World War II.

1943 – The Reich called off its offensive in Caucasus.