On this date in

1517 Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg Palace church, marking the start of the Protestant Reformation in Germany.

1861 Winfield Scott resigned as as Commander of the U.S. Army.

1864 Nevada became the 36th state.

1892 Arthur Conan Doyle published "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes."

1913 The Lincoln Highway, the first highway across America, was dedicated.

1926 Magician Harry Houdini died of complications from a ruptured appendix.

1941 The Reuben James was torpedoed by a German submarine, becoming the first U.S. Navy ship sunk by enemy action during World War II.

1959 Lee Harvey Oswald attempted to renounce his U.S. citizenship at the American Embassy in Moscow.

1968 President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered a halt to all U.S. bombing of North Vietnam, saying he hoped for fruitful peace negotiations.

1984 Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated near her residence by two Sikh security guards.

1991 Theatrical producer Joseph Papp died at age 70.

1992 It was announced that five American nuns in Liberia had been shot to death near the capital Monrovia; the killings were blamed on rebels loyal to Charles Taylor.

1993 Italian movie director Federico Fellini died at age 73.

1999 EgyptAir Flight 990 crashed off the Massachusetts coast, killing all 217 people aboard.

2005 President George W. Bush nominated Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court.

2006 P.W. Botha, South Africa's apartheid-era president, died at age 90.

2007 Three lead defendants in the 2004 Madrid train bombings were found guilty of mass murder and other charges, but four other top suspects were convicted on lesser charges and an accused ringleader was completely acquitted in the attacks that killed 191 people.

Born on this date:
Jan Vermeer (1632-1675)
Clement XIV (1705-1774)
William Paca (1740-1799)
John Keats (1795-1821)
Sir Joseph Wilson Swan (1828-1914)
Juliette Gordon Low (1860-1927)
Andrew Volstead (1860-1947)
Eugene Meyer (1875-1959)
Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975)
Sir George Hubert Wilkins (1888-1958)
Ethel Waters (1896-1977)
Wilbur Shaw (1902-1954)
Dale Evans (1912-2001)
Barbara Bel Geddes (1922-2005)
Michael Landon (1936-1991)
Brian Piccolo (1943-1970)
John Candy (1950-1994)