Today in history

In 1632 architect Sir Christopher Wren, designer of London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral, was born in East Knoyle, England.

In 1803 the U.S. Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase.

In 1903 a joint commission ruled in favor of the United States in a boundary dispute between the District of Alaska and Canada.

In 1918 Germany accepted U.S. demands to retreat to its own territory in World War I.

In 1926 Eugene V. Debs, who ran for president five times as a Socialist, died in an Elmhurst sanitarium; he was 70.

In 1931 Hall of Fame center fielder Mickey Mantle was born in Spavinaw, Okla.

In 1936 Anne Sullivan Macy, the longtime teacher of Helen Keller, died in Forest Hills, N.Y.; she was 70.

In 1937 Juan Marichal, the baseball Hall of Famer who later would become sports minister in his native Dominican Republic from 1996 to 2000, was born in Laguna Verde, Dominican Republic.

In 1944, during World War II, Gen. Douglas MacArthur stepped ashore at Leyte in the Philippines, 2 1/2 years after he had said, “I shall return.”

In 1967 seven men were convicted in Meridian, Miss., of violating the civil rights of three murdered civil rights workers.

In 1968 former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.

In 1973, in the “Saturday Night Massacre,” special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox was dismissed and Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus resigned.

In 1977 three members of the rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd were killed in the crash of a chartered plane near McComb, Miss.

In 1990 three members of the rap group 2 Live Crew were acquitted by a jury in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., of violating obscenity laws with an adults-only concert in nearby Hollywood the previous June.

In 1995 France, the United States and Britain announced a treaty banning atomic blasts in the South Pacific — but only after France finished testing there the following year.

In 2003 a judge in Eagle, Colo., ordered Kobe Bryant to stand trial for sexual assault. (However, the criminal case was later dropped).

In 2014 Laquan Mcdonald, 17, was killed by Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke; Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder more than a year later when video of the shooting was released, causing a firestorm of controversy and calls for major criminal justice reforms.