Today:
241 BC: The Roman fleet defeats the Carthaginians in the Battle of the Aegates, effectively ending the First Punic War.
1629: King Charles I of England dissolves Parliament, beginning an eleven-year period of personal rule without a legislature.
1848: The United States Senate ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which concludes the Mexican-American War.
1862: The first issue of United States government paper money enters circulation in denominations of $5, $10, and $20.
1876: Alexander Graham Bell successfully conducts the first telephone call, famously telling his assistant, Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.
1913: Harriet Tubman, the renowned American abolitionist and activist who led many enslaved people to freedom via the Underground Railroad, passes away.
1945: During World War II, the United States Army Air Forces begin a massive firebombing raid on Tokyo, resulting in one of the most destructive air attacks in history.
1959: A massive uprising begins in Lhasa, Tibet, as thousands of people surround the Potala Palace to protect the Dalai Lama from potential Chinese abduction.
1969: James Earl Ray pleads guilty to the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee.
1977: Astronomers using a specialized airborne observatory discover the rings of Uranus while observing the planet’s occultation of a star.