TODAY IN HISTORY

1937 Stalin’s purge of Russian generals begins. 1949 General Jan Smuts is inaugurated as chancellor of the University of Cambridge in the UK.

1964 Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and other antiapartheid leaders are sentenced to life in prison.

1994 The ex-wife of US gridiron star OJ Simpson and one of her friends are found murdered.

2011 Turkey’s ruling party enters a third term in parliamentary elections, setting the stage for the rising regional power to pursue economic growth.

2012 The US accuses Russia of escalating the Syrian conflict by sending attack helicopters to President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

2013 Turkey’s government offers a concrete gesture, proposing a referendum on a development project in Istanbul that triggered demonstrations which become the biggest challenge to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rule.