HISTORY AT A GLANCE

TODAY is Friday, March 3, the 62nd day of 2017. There are 303 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:

1945 – World War II: American and Filipino troops recapture Manila in the Philippines.

1953 – A Canadian Pacific Air Lines De Havilland Comet crashes in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 11. 1958 – Nuri al-Said becomes Prime Minister of Iraq for the

eighth time. 1969 – Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 9 to test the lunar module.

1972 – Mohawk Airlines Flight 405 crashes as a result of a control malfunction and insufficient training in emergency procedures.

1974 – Turkish Airlines Flight 981 crashes at Ermenonville near Paris, France killing all 346 aboard.

1985 – A magnitude 8.3 earthquake strikes the Valparaíso Region of Chile, killing 177 and leaving nearly a million people homeless.

1991 – An amateur video captures the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers.

1991 – In concurrent referenda, 74% of the population of Latvia votes for independence from the Soviet Union, and 83% in Estonia.

1991 – United Airlines Flight 585 crashes on approach into

Colorado Springs, Colorado, killing 25.

1997 – The tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere, Sky Tower in downtown Auckland, New Zealand, opens after two-and-a-half years of construction.

2005 – Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly an airplane non-stop around the world solo without refueling.

2005 – Margaret Wilson is elected as Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives, beginning a period lasting until August 23, 2006 where all the highest political offices (including Elizabeth II as Head of State), were occupied by women, making New Zealand the first country for this to occur.

2009 – The Historical Archive of the City of Cologne collapses.

2012 – Two trains crash in the small Polish town of Szczekociny near Zawiercie, with 16 people killed and up to 58 people injured.

2013 – A bomb blast in Karachi, Pakistan, kills at least 45 people and injured 180 others in a predominately Shia Muslim area.

2014 – The trial of Oscar Pistorius begins in Pretoria.

2015 – Slovenia legalizes same-sex marriage.