Today in History....October 10

On this day in …

1845, the U.S. Naval Academy opened in Annapolis, Md.

1877, the U.S. Army holds a West Point funeral with full military honors for Lieutenant-Colonel George Armstrong Custer. Killed the previous year in Montana by Sioux and Cheyenne Indians at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, Custer's body had been returned to the East for burial on the grounds of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point

1911, revolutionaries under Sun Yat-sen launched their overthrow of China's Manchu dynasty

1938, Germany completed its annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland

1951, President Harry S. Truman signs the Mutual Security Act, announcing to the world, and its communist powers in particular, that the U.S. was prepared to provide military aid to "free peoples." The signing of the act came after the Soviet Union exploded their second nuclear weapon in a test on October 3
1969, the U.S. Navy transfers 80 river-patrol boats to the South Vietnamese Navy in the largest single transfer of naval equipment since the war began. This was part of the ongoing Vietnamization program, which had been announced by President Richard Nixon at Midway in June. Under this program, the United States sought to turn over responsibility for the fighting to the South Vietnamese so that U.S. troops could be withdrawn from Vietnam

1973, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, accused of accepting bribes, pleaded no contest to one count of federal income tax evasion, and resigned his office

2001, U.S. jets pounded the Afghan capital of Kabul. President Bush unveiled a list of 22 most-wanted terrorists, including Osama bin Laden and associates

2005, Angela Merkel struck a power-sharing deal that made her the first woman and politician from the ex-communist east to serve as Germany's chancellor