On this date
In 1776, Gen. George Washington, commander of the Continental Army, was awarded the first Congressional Gold Medal by the Continental Congress.
In 1911, 146 people, mostly young female immigrants, were killed when fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. in New York.
In 1931, in the “Scottsboro Boys” case, nine young black men were taken off a train in Alabama, accused of raping two white women; after years of convictions, death sentences and imprisonment, the nine were eventually vindicated.
In 1947, a coal-dust explosion inside the Centralia Coal Co. Mine No. 5 in Washington County, Ill., killed 111 people.
In 1957, a signing ceremony was held for the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community.
In 1987, the Supreme Court, in Johnson vs. Transportation Agency, ruled 6-3 that an employer could promote a woman over an arguably more-qualified man to help get women into higher-ranking jobs.
In 1996, an 81-day standoff by the anti-government Freemen began at a ranch in Montana.
Ten years ago: Iran announced it was partially suspending cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, citing what it called “illegal and bullying” Security Council sanctions.
Five years ago: President Barack Obama arrived in South Korea, where he visited the Demilitarized Zone, telling American troops stationed nearby they were protectors of “freedom’s frontier.”
One year ago: The Rolling Stones performed a two-hour free concert for an ecstatic crowd of hundreds of thousands of Cubans and foreign visitors in Havana.