Also on this date
In 1789, the Constitution of the United States went into effect as the first Federal Congress met in New York. (The lawmakers then adjourned for lack of a quorum.)
In 1865, at his inauguration for a second term in office, President Abraham Lincoln declared, with the end of the Civil War in sight: “With malice toward none, with charity for all.”
In 1974, the first issue of People magazine, then called People Weekly, was published by Time-Life Inc.; on the cover was actor Mia Farrow.
In 1987, President Ronald Reagan addressed the nation on the IranContra affair, acknowledging that his overtures to Iran had “deteriorated” into an arms-for-hostages deal.
In 1994, in New York, four extremists were convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed six people and injured more than a thousand.
In 1994, actor-comedian John Candy died in Durango, Mexico, at age 43.
In 1998, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that sexual harassment at work can be illegal even when the offender and victim are of the same gender.
In 2015, the Justice Department cleared Darren Wilson, a white former Ferguson, Missouri, police officer, in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, a Black 18-year-old, but also issued a scathing report calling for sweeping changes in city law enforcement practices.
In 2018, former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious on a bench in the southwestern English city of Salisbury, surviving what British authorities said was a murder attempt using a nerve agent.
Ten years ago: Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s regime struck back at its opponents with an attack on Zawiya, the closest opposition-held city to Tripoli.
Five years ago: The U.S. Supreme Court blocked enforcement of a Louisiana clinic regulation law placing new restrictions on abortion.
One year ago: The House passed an $8.3 billion measure aimed at speeding the development of coronavirus vaccines.