Today:
1192 – Richard the Lionheart, returning from the Third Crusade, is captured near Vienna by Leopold V, Duke of Austria.
1606 – The Virginia Company expedition leaves London to establish the first permanent English colony in North America.
1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is formally transferred from France to the United States during a ceremony in New Orleans.
1860 – South Carolina becomes the first state to secede from the United States, leading to the Civil War.
1917 – The Cheka, a Soviet secret police organization, is established in Russia under Felix Dzerzhinsky.
1924 – Adolf Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison after serving less than a year for his role in the Beer Hall Putsch.
1941 – The American Flying Tigers, a volunteer air force group, engage in their first combat in China during World War II.
1946 – The Frank Capra film It’s a Wonderful Life premieres in New York City.
1951 – Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-I) produces electricity for the first time, marking a milestone in nuclear power.
1989 – The United States invades Panama to depose its leader, Manuel Noriega, in Operation Just Cause.
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