Author: mindgames

This Day in History: 1917

Congress passes the Espionage Act during World War I.

This Day in History: 1951

The U.S. Census Bureau dedicates UNIVAC, the first commercial digital computer.

This Day in History: 1895

Emile Levassor wins the world's first real automobile race.

This Day in History: 1940

Edsel Ford agrees to manufacture 9,000 Rolls-Royce engines for warplanes.

This Day in History: 1979

Actor John Wayne dies at age 72.

This Day in History: 2015

Juan Felipe Herrera, a prize-winning author and the son of migrant farmworkers, whose mother recited poetry and taught him songs from the Mexican Revolution, became America's first Latino poet laureate.

This Day in History: 1934

Donald Duck made his cinema debut in Disney's The Wise Little Hen, along with his pal Peter Pig. The pair do their best to get out of helping Mrs. Hen plant corn by faking tummy troubles, but she teaches them a lesson (not to mention repentance) with the help of some castor oil.

This Day in History: 1191

King Richard I of England arrived in Acre, Israel, beginning the Third Crusade, an attempt co-led by France's King Philip II and Emperor Frederick Barbarossa to reconquer the Holy Land following Jerusalem's capture by the Ayyubid sultan Saladin in 1187.