Today in History

In 1759, town officials in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, evicted the Rev. Francis Gastrell from William Shakespeare's home after he cut down a 150-year-old tree that had been planted by the famed writer.

In 1901, the U.S. War Department authorized creation of the Army War College to instruct commissioned officers. It was built in Leavenworth, Kan.

In 1940, two months after Gen. Ion Antonescu seized power in Romania and forced King Carol II to abdicate, more than 60 aides of the exiled king, including Nicolae Iorga, a former minister and acclaimed historian, were executed.

In 1945, U.S. President Harry Truman named U.S. Army Gen. George Marshall his special representative to China.

In 1970, a man with a knife attempted to injure Pope Paul VI at Manila Airport in the Philippines.

In 1989, University of Chicago doctors implanted part of a woman's liver in her 21-month-old daughter in the nation's first living donor liver transplant.

Also in 1989, Virginia certified Douglas Wilder as the nation's first elected black governor by a margin of 0.38 percent.

In 1990, British Treasury chief John Major was elected Conservative Party leader, succeeding Margaret Thatcher as prime minister.

In 1992, military dissidents attempted to overthrow Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez.

In 1994, Bosnian Serbs took 150 U.N. peacekeepers hostage to prevent NATO airstrikes.

In 1997, tens of thousands of German students took to the streets of Bonn to protest the decline of Germany's higher education system.

In 2001, nearly half the 1,200 people detained after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, mostly of Middle Eastern descent, were still in custody more than two months later.

In 2002, U.S. President George Bush created a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and to glean lessons to help thwart future attacks.

In 2003, U.S. President George Bush swooped into Iraq under the cover of darkness in a surprise visit to U.S. forces in Baghdad to help serve them Thanksgiving dinner.

In 2004, the U.N. Committee on Torture asked Britain to review its policy of detaining foreign terror suspects without trial.

Also in 2004, Venezuela reportedly planned to continue to strengthen its army with the help of Russian weaponry.

In 2005, earthquakes struck China and Iran. At least 17 people died in the quake that rattled eastern China and at least 10 were killed when another tremor hit southern Iran.

Also in 2005, former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said human rights abuses by the Baghdad government are as bad as they were under Saddam Hussein.