TODAY IN HISTORY

January 12

1872		Russian Grand Duke Alexis goes on a gala buffalo hunting expedition with Gen. Phil Sheridan and Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer.
1879		The British-Zulu War begins. British troops — under Lieutenant General Frederic Augustus — invade Zululand from the southern African republic of Natal.
1908		A wireless message is sent long-distance for the first time from the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
1913		Kiel and Wilhelmshaven become submarine bases in Germany.
1915		The U.S. Congress establishes Rocky Mountain National Park.
1926		U.S. coal talks break down, leaving both sides bitter as the strike drags on into its fifth month.
1927		U.S. Secretary of State Kellogg claims that Mexican rebel Plutarco Calles is aiding communist plot in Nicaragua.
1932		Oliver Wendell Holmes retires from the Supreme Court at age 90.
1938		Austria recognizes the Franco government in Spain.
1940		Soviet bombers raid cities in Finland.
1943		Soviet forces raise the siege of Leningrad.
1952		The Viet Minh cut the supply lines to the French forces in Hoa Binh, Vietnam.
1962		The United States resumes aid to the Laotian regime.
1973		Yassar Arafat is re-elected as head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
1982		Peking protests the sale of U.S. planes to Taiwan.
1991		The U.S. Congress gives the green light to military action against Iraq in the Persian Gulf Crisis.