This Day in History

1519: Hernán Cortés defeats the Aztecs under Montezuma in Mexico.
1837: Mount Holyoke College is founded as the first U.S. college only for women.
1861: The seizure of Confederate diplomats by a U.S. ship severely strains relations between the U.S. and Great Britain in the Trent Affair.
1864: Abraham Lincoln is reelected president, defeating George McClellan.
1889: Montana is admitted to the Union as the 41st state. The Bronx Zoo, one of the world's largest zoos, opens to the public.
1895: Physicist Wilhelm Roentgen discovers X-rays.
1923: In the so-called Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, Germany, Adolf Hitler unsuccessfully attempts to seize power with 600 armed storm troopers.
1932: Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected president for the first time, defeating incumbent Herbert Hoover.
1942: U.S. and British forces, led by Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, land in North Africa.
1960: John F. Kennedy is elected president, defeating Richard Nixon .
1988: George Bush is elected president, defeating Michael Dukakis.
2002: The UN Security Council votes 15-0 to give Iraq a "final opportunity" to comply with previous disarmament resolutions.
2003: A car bomb explodes in a residential section of Riyadh, the Saudi capital, killing 17 and wounding more than 120.
2005: The French government declares a state of emergency after rioting, mainly by young Muslims of North African descent, spreads through 300 cities and towns across the country.