Today in 1970, Apollo 13 returns safely back to Earth.  Six days prior, the third manned mission to the moon launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.  Astronauts James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert, and Fred W. Haise were aboard.  Two days into the mission, oxygen tank No. 2 blew up and the landing mission had to be aborted.  Because the electricity and oxygen supply had been compromised, mission control and the astronauts had to come up with emergency procedures to get them safely back to earth.

With one logistical problem after another, Apollo 13 successfully reentered into the Earth’s atmosphere and touched down in the Pacific Ocean.

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Today in 1980, the major underdog U.S. hockey team upsets the Soviet dream team at the XIII Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York.  The Soviet team had been four-time defending gold-medalists when they were defeated by the young American team 4-3.

To many Americans, the “Miracle of Ice” was an ideological victory in the Cold War.  Victory came at a time when Americans desperately needed something to celebrate.

After defeating the Soviets, the U.S. team went on to win hockey gold by defeating Finland 4-2 two days later.

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Today in 1963 marks the day that President Lyndon B. Johnson establishes the Warren Commission.  The commission was created in order to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy that had happened the week before.

Kennedy was fatally wounded on November 22 in Dallas, Texas while traveling in an open car through Dealey Plaza.  Details were murky because Kennedy’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was killed by Jack Ruby soon after Kennedy’s death.

In one of his first official acts as President, Johnson issued Executive Order No. 11130, appointing the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy.  This commission if known as the Warren Commission because it was led by Chief Justice Earl Warren.

Though the Warren Commission concluded that Oswald acted alone, the circumstances surrounding Kennedy’s death have given rise to countless conspiracy theories.

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Today in 1492 marks the day Italian explorer Christopher Columbus reaches the New World.  With the intention of finding a western ocean route to Asia, Columbus and his expedition sighted and landed on a Bahamian island and claimed it for Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain.

Born in Genoa, Italy in 1451, Columbus was consumed with the idea of discovering a western sea route to Asia.  At the time, most routes to Asia were closed to Europeans by the Ottoman Empire.  Columbus met with King John II of Portugal and King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to ask for financial backing for his expedition.  Though Ferdinand and Isabella denied him twice, eventually they agreed to support him.

Columbus set sail on August 3, 1492 from Palos, Spain.  The three ships he sailed with were the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.  After landing in the Bahamas, Columbus went on to Hispaniola where he established a small colony.  Christopher Columbus was the first European since the Vikings to explore the Americas. 

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Today in 1862 marks the day President Abraham Lincoln issues a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.  Before the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln claimed the war was about reuniting the Union.  After the Proclamation, it became clear that the rest of the war would be a fight against slavery.  The Proclaimation set a date for the freedom of slaves within the rebel states.

After the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, anti-slavery countries that had been friendly to the Southern cause could no longer justify backing them because it would be seen as supporting the institution of slavery.  Though the Emancipation Proclamation helped unify the Republican party and keep them in power, most slaves were not released until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment that ended the institution of slavery in 1865.

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Today in 1813 marks the birth of Uncle Sam as a nickname for the United States.  During the War of 1812, meat packer Samuel Wilson supplied barrels of beef to the United States Army.  The barrels were stamped by Wilson with “U.S.” for United States.  Newspapers picked up that soldiers were calling the food “Uncle Sam’s” and the story led to the acceptance of Uncle Sam as the nickname of the US federal government.

Cartoonist Thomas Nast popularized the image of Uncle Sam in the 1860s and 70s, but it was the image by artist James Montgomery that was used as a recruiting poster during WWI.

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Today in 1901 marks the day that President William McKinley is shot.  McKinley was shot twice by anarchist Leon Czolgosz at point-blank range while greeting a crowd at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.  On September 14, McKinley died because of a gangrene infection.

At the time of McKinley’s Presidency, the Secret Service was newly formed.  Agents were able to apprehend Czolgosz after the shots were fired.  He was sent to the electric chair on October 29 that same year.

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Today in 1864 marks the day General William Tecumseh Sherman and his Union Army capture Atlanta, Georgia.  Because Atlanta served as a critical Confederate hub, the Atlanta campaign was one of the most decisive victories of the Civil War.

The Atlanta campaign began on the outskirts of the city on May 4, 1864.  After Union forces captured the city on September 1, Sherman and his men successfully defended it until November 15.  On November 15, Sherman began his famous March to the Sea, ordering that all of Atlanta’s military resources be burned.

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Yesterday in 1865 marks the day the US federal government executed Mary Surratt.  Surratt was the first woman executed by the US federal government.  Surratt’s home was a boardinghouse that served as the place where confederate supporters planned the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.  John Wilkes Booth was one of the men who frequented the Surratt house.  This association led to Mary Surratt’s conviction.

Because no woman had been executed by the US government, it was expected that President Andrew Johnson would pardon Surratt.  That pardon never came, and Mary Surratt was hanged with three other convicted conspirators at Fort McNair.

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Today in 1776 marks the day the Continental Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence.  The Declaration of Independence severed the relationship between the United States and Great Britain.  

The road to independence began after Parliament passed the Stamp Act in 1765. The purpose of the Stamp Act was to raise money for the British army that was residing in America.  After the Tea Act of 1773 and the Intolerable Acts in 1774, the colonists called the first Continental Congress to consider resisting the British as a united America. By the Spring of 1776, there was widespread support for independence from Great Britain. 

The declaration was drafted mainly by Thomas Jefferson and formally adopted on July 4, 1776.  

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