Today in History : January 21
1189 : Philip Augustus, Henry II of England and Frederick Barbarossa assemble the troops for the Third Crusade.
1648 : In Maryland, the first woman lawyer in the colonies, Margaret Brent, is denied a vote in the Maryland Assembly.
1785 : Chippewa, Delaware, Ottawa and Wyandot Indians sign the treaty of Fort McIntosh, ceding present-day Ohio to the United States.
1790 : Joseph Guillotine proposes a new, more humane method of execution: a machine designed to cut off the condemned person’s head as painlessly as possible.
1793 : The French King Louis XVI is guillotined for treason.
1910 : Japan rejects the American proposal to neutralize ownership of the Manchurian Railway.
1919 : The German Krupp plant begins producing guns under the U.S. armistice terms.
1921 : J.D. Rockefeller pledges $1 million for the relief of Europe’s destitute.
1930 : An international arms control meeting opens in London.
1933 : The League of Nations rejects Japanese terms for settlement with China.
1941 : The United States lifts the ban on selling arms to the Soviet Union.
1942 : In North Africa, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel launches a drive to push the British eastward. While the British benefited from radio-intercept-derived Ultra information, the Germans enjoyed an even speedier intelligence source.
1943 : A Nazi daylight air raid kills 34 in a London school. When the anticipated invasion of Britain failed to materialize in 1940, Londoners relaxed, but soon they faced a frightening new threat.
1951 : Communist troops force the UN army out of Inchon, Korea after a 12-hour attack.
1958 : The Soviet Union calls for a ban on nuclear arms in Baghdad Pact countries.
1964 : Carl T. Rowan is named the director of the United States Information Agency (USIA).
1968 : In Vietnam, the Siege of Khe Sanh begins as North Vietnamese units surround U.S. Marines based on the hilltop headquarters.
1974 : The U.S. Supreme Court decides that pregnant teachers can no longer be forced to take long leaves of absence.
1976 : Leonid Brezhnev and Henry Kissinger meet to discuss Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT).
1977 : President Carter urges 65 degrees as the maximum heat in homes to ease the energy crisis.
1993 : Congressman Mike Espy of Mississippi is confirmed as Secretary of the Department of Agriculture.
Born on January 21
1737 : Ethan Allen, American Revolutionary commander.
1824 : Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, Confederate General.
1925 : Benny Hill, British comedian.
