On this date

In 1945,

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin signed the Yalta Agreement, in which Stalin agreed to declare war against Imperial Japan following Nazi Germany’s capitulation.

In 1968,

New York City’s fourth and current Madison Square Garden, on Manhattan’s West Side at the site of what used to be the Pennsylvania Station building, opened with a “Salute to the USO” hosted by Bob Hope and Bing Crosby.

In 1979,

followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini seized power in Iran.

In 2006,

Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded Harry Whittington, a companion during a weekend quail-hunting trip in Texas.

In 2012,

pop singer Whitney Houston, 48, was found dead in a hotel room bathtub in Beverly Hills, Calif.

In 2013,

with a few words in Latin, Pope Benedict XVI did what no pope had done in more than half a millennium: announced his resignation. The bombshell came during a routine morning meeting of Vatican cardinals. (The 85-year-old pontiff was succeeded by Pope Francis.)

Ten years ago:

The nation’s top bankers went before the House Financial Services Committee, pledging to build public trust with greater lending and fewer perks.

Five years ago:

President Barack Obama, during a joint White House news conference with French President Francois Hollande, vowed to come down like “a ton of bricks” on businesses that violated Iranian sanctions while nuclear negotiations were under way.

One year ago:

Singer Vic Damone, who possessed what Frank Sinatra once called “the best pipes in the business,” died in Florida at age 89.