Today in Histroy

1252 Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad exstirpanda, which authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition
1618 German astronomer Johannes Kepler discovers the third of his three planetary laws his “harmonics law”
1869 National Woman Suffrage Association forms in New York, founded by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton
1940 Richard and Maurice McDonald open the 1st McDonald’s restaurant in San Bernardino, California
1951 AT&T becomes the 1st US corporation to have a million stockholders after young car salesman Brady Denton purchases 7 shares worth $1,078
1988 USSR begins withdrawing its 115,000 troops from Afghanistan

Today in Film & TV

2002 “Bowling for Columbine”, a documentary directed by Michael Moore has its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival

Today in Music

1914 Henri Rabaud’s opera “Marouf, savetier de Caire” premieres in Paris

Today in Sports

2010 Jessica Watson at age 16 becomes the youngest person to sail solo, non-stop and unassisted around the world