1942: Stars and Stripes made its debut as the U.S. serviceman's paper. On the other side of the Pacific, a squadron of North American B-25s launched from the aircraft carrier Hornet, led by Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle, bombs Tokyo and a series of other targets on the Japanese mainland.
Also today in history, in the U.S. and elsewhere:
1775: Paul Revere and Charles Dawes rode from Charleston to Lexington crying "the regulars are coming." Think you know everything about Paul Revere? Take a short quiz on HistoryNet.com to find out.
1783: The American War for Independence formally ended--eight years to the day after it began.
1861: As Virginian troops moved to seize Harpers Ferry, its Union garrison pulled out after partially destroying the arsenal and its weapons (the Rebels recover 5,000 rifles and some of the equipment for producing them). Not coincidentally, Colonel Robert E. Lee, after some serious thought, turned down an offer to accept command of the U.S. Army.
1945: On Ie Shima, off Okinawa, the 77th Infantry Division lost a buddy when Ernie Pyle, the GI's war correspondent, was killed by Japanese machine gun fire. To learn some interesting facts about Pyle, visit HistoryNet.com.
