On this date
In 1842, Queen Victoria became the first British monarch to ride on a train, traveling from Slough Railway Station to Paddington in 25 minutes.
In 1927, aviation hero Charles Lindbergh was honored with a tickertape parade in New York City.
In 1935, James Braddock claimed the title of world heavyweight boxing champion from Max Baer in a 15-round fight in Queens, N.Y.
In 1942, a four-man Nazi sabotage team arrived on Long Island, N.Y., three days before a second fourman team landed in Florida. (All eight men were arrested after two members of the first group defected.)
In 1977, James Earl Ray, the convicted assassin of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., was recaptured following his escape three days earlier from a Tennessee prison.
In 1983, the U.S. space probe Pioneer 10, launched in 1972, became the first spacecraft to leave the solar system as it crossed the orbit of Neptune.
In 1993, astronaut Donald K. “Deke” Slayton, a Sparta, Wis., native, died at age 69.
Ten years ago: Tim Russert, moderator of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” died while preparing for his weekly broadcast; he was 58.
Five years ago: The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously threw out attempts to patent human genes, siding with advocates who said the multibillion-dollar biotechnology industry should not have exclusive control over genetic information found in the human body.
One year ago: A comatose Otto Warmbier, released by North Korea after more than 17 months in captivity, arrived in Cincinnati aboard a medevac flight; the 22-year-old college student, who had suffered severe brain damage, died six days later.