On this date

1782 — The eighth president of the United States, Martin Van Buren, was born in Kinderhook, New York; he was the first chief executive to be born after American independence.

1791 — Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in Vienna, Austria, at age 35.

1792 — George Washington was re-elected president; John Adams was re-elected vice president.

1831 — Former President John Quincy Adams took his seat as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

1910 — Former Confederate Brig. Gen. Alfred Cumming died in Rome. He served at Vicksburg and in the Confederate defense during Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign.

1916 — British Prime Minister Herbert H. Asquith resigned (he was succeeded by David Lloyd George).

1933 — National Prohibition came to an end as Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, repealing the 18th Amendment.

1945 — Five U.S. Navy torpedo bombers mysteriously disappeared after taking off from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on a training mission with the loss of all 14 crew members; “The Lost Squadron” contributed to the legend of the Bermuda Triangle.

1967 — Pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock and poet Allen Ginsberg were among more than 260 people arrested during an anti-Vietnam War protest outside an armed forces induction center in lower Manhattan.

1977 — Egypt broke diplomatic relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq and South Yemen in the wake of criticism that followed President Anwar Sadat’s peace overtures to Israel.

1988 — A federal grand jury in North Carolina indicted PTL founder Jim Bakker and former aide Richard Dortch on fraud and conspiracy charges. (Bakker was convicted on all counts; Dortch pleaded guilty to four counts and cooperated with prosecutors in exchange for a lighter sentence. Bakker was initially sentenced to 45 years in prison; the term was eventually reduced to eight years, and he served a total of about five.)

1994 — Republicans chose Newt Gingrich to be the first GOP speaker of the House in four decades.

2013 — Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader who became South Africa’s first black president, died at age 95.