TODAY IN HISTORY: 20 years ago today

In 1998, Michel Trudeau, 23, the youngest son of former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau, drowned in Kokanee Lake after being swept away by an avalanche while back-country skiing.

In 1789, Benjamin Franklin wrote in a letter to a friend, “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

In 1794, U.S. President George Washington sent an army into western Pennsylvania to put down the Whiskey Rebellion, which was provoked by an excise tax in 1791.

In 1951, Canadian bass-baritone George London made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. London, a native of Montreal, spent 17 consecutive seasons at the Met. In 1970, history’s worst cyclone killed more than one million people in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

In 1974, Karen Silkwood, a technician and union activist at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron plutonium plant near Crescent, Okla., died in a car crash while on her way to meet a reporter. Her life story was brought to film in 1983 with Meryl Streep in the title role.

In 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

In 1991, Bryan Adams asked radio stations in Louisiana not to play his hit “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You.” He was upset because former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke was using the song in his campaign for governor. Duke lost the election.

In 1997, the Spice Girls were booed off the stage at an awards ceremony in Barcelona, Spain. The pop group had delayed their performance because they didn’t want photographers taking any pictures.

In 1999, Donald Mills, the last surviving member of the groundbreaking Mills Brothers singing group, known for their hits such “Paper Doll” and “Tiger Rag,” died in Los Angeles at 84.