Today In History: Britain and France declare war on Russia, Spanish Civil War ends...

1814 - The funeral of Guillotin, the inventor and namesake of the infamous execution device, takes place outside of Paris, France. Guillotin had what he felt were the purest motives for inventing the guillotine and was deeply distressed at how his reputation had become besmirched in the aftermath.

1854 - Britain and France declare war on Russia.

1910 - The first seaplane takes off from water at Martiniques, France.

1917 - The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) is founded, Great Britain's first official service women.

1915 - On this day, the first American citizen is killed in the eight-month-old European conflict that would become known as the First World War.

1939 - In Spain, the Republican defenders of Madrid raise the white flag over the city, bringing to an end the bloody three-year Spanish Civil War.

1941 - On this day, Andrew Browne Cunningham, Admiral of the British Fleet, commands the British Royal Navy's destruction of three major Italian cruisers and two destroyers in the Battle of Cape Matapan in the Mediterranean.

1969 - Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States and one of the most highly regarded American generals of World War II, dies in Washington, D.C., at the age of 78.

1979 - The most serious nuclear accident in United States history takes place at the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on this day in 1979, when one of the reactors overheats. Fortunately, a catastrophic meltdown was averted and there were no deaths or direct injuries from the accident.







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