On this date
In 1821, Spain ceded Florida to the United States.
In 1918, Russia’s Czar Nicholas II and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks.
In 1944, during World War II, 320 men, two-thirds of them AfricanAmericans, were killed when a pair of ammunition ships exploded at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in California.
In 1955, Disneyland had its opening day in Anaheim, Calif.
In 1975, an Apollo spaceship docked with a Soyuz spacecraft in orbit in the first superpower link-up of its kind.
In 1997, Woolworth Corp. announced it was closing its 400 remaining five-and-dime stores across the country, ending 117 years in business.
In 2014, All 298 passengers and crew aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 were killed when the Boeing 777 was shot down over rebel-held eastern Ukraine.
Ten years ago: Former CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite died in New York at 92.
Five years ago: Eric Garner, an unarmed black man accused of selling loose, untaxed cigarettes, died shortly after being wrestled to the ground by New York City police officers; a video of the takedown showed Garner repeatedly saying, “I can’t breathe.” (Garner’s family received $5.9 million from the city in 2015 to settle a wrongful death claim.)
One year ago: Amid criticism from within his own party, President Donald Trump said he had simply misspoken when he said during his summit with Vladimir Putin that he saw no reason to believe Russia had interfered in the 2016 U.S. election.