Today in History

• 2013 The trial against whistleblower Bradley Manning begins

  The American soldier, a trans woman now called Chelsea Manning, was responsible for leaking classified videos documenting U.S. war atrocities during the Iraq War. She was sentenced to 35 years confinement.

• 1998 101 people die in the Eschede train disaster

  Traveling at 200 km/h (120 mph), a high-speed ICE train derailed and crashed into a bridge. The accident was caused by a fatigue crack in one of the train’s wheels. It was the deadliest high-speed train disaster in history.

• 1982 The Israeli ambassador to the U.K. is shot

  Shlomo Argov survived the assassination attempt by a Palestinian terrorist group, but he was permanently paralyzed. The event triggered the 1982 Lebanon War.

• 1973 The world’s first supersonic airliner crashes

  The Soviet Tupolev Tu-144, sometimes referred to as Concordski, disintegrated in mid-air during the 1973 Paris Air Show. 14 people died.

• 1492 Martin Behaim presents the world’s first globe

  The German geographer called his terrestrial globe Erdapfel, or Earth Apple. It is kept in a darkened room at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, Germany.