TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Wednesday, June 29.
Today’s highlight:
On June 29, 1613, London’s original Globe Theatre, where many of Shakespeare’s plays were performed, was destroyed by a fire sparked by a cannon shot during a performance of “Henry VIII.”
On this date:
In 1520, Montezuma II, the ninth and last emperor of the Aztecs, died in Tenochtitlan under unclear circumstances (some say he was killed by his own subjects; others, by the Spanish).
In 1767, Britain approved the Townshend Revenue Act, which imposed import duties on glass, paint, oil, lead, paper and tea shipped to the American colonies. (Colonists bitterly protested, prompt- ing Parliament to repeal the duties — except for tea.)
In 1776, the Virginia state constitution was adopted, and Patrick Henry was made governor.
In 1927, the first trans-Pa- cific airplane flight was com- pleted as U.S. Army Air Corps Lt. Lester J. Maitland and Lt. Albert F. Hegenberger arrived at Wheeler Field in Hawaii aboard the Bird of Paradise, an Atlantic-Fokker C-2, after flying 2,400 miles from Oakland, California, in 25 hours, 50 minutes.
In 1946, authorities in British-ruled Palestine arrested more than 2,700 Jews in an attempt to stamp out extremists.
In 1967, Jerusalem was reunified as Israel removed barricades separating the Old City from the Israeli sector.
In 1978, actor Bob Crane of “Hogan’s Heroes” fame was found bludgeoned to death in an apartment in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he was appearing in a play; he was 49.
In 2006, the Supreme Court ruled, 5-3, that President George W. Bush’s plan to try Guantanamo Bay detainees in military tribunals violated U.S. and international law.
In 2009, disgraced financier Bernard Madoff received a 150-year sentence for his multibillion-dollar fraud. (Madoff died in prison in April 2021.)
In 2018, the Annapolis Capital Gazette newspaper in Maryland kept its promise to put out the day’s paper, despite the shooting deaths of five people in its newsroom a day earlier.
Ten years ago: A day after the House voted to find Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress, the Justice Department said Holder’s decision to withhold information about a bungled gun-tracking operation from Congress did not constitute a crime. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency filed formal charges against Lance Armstrong, accusing the seven-time Tour de France winner of using performance-enhancing drugs throughout the best years of his career.
Five years ago: A scaledback version of President Donald Trump’s travel ban took effect. The new rules tightened already-tough visa policies affecting citizens from six Muslim-majority countries.
One year ago: Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld died at the age of 88 in New Mexico; he had been Pentagon chief during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan that toppled the Taliban regime following the 9/11 attacks, and also at the start of the long and costly Iraq war in 2003. Former South African President Jacob Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in prison for defying a court order to appear for questions about allegations of corruption; his jailing would spark violent rioting in which more than 330 people died.