TODAY IN HISTORY

In 1859, British naturalist Charles Darwin published “On the Origin of Species,” which explained his theory of evolution by means of natural selection.

In 1917, nine members of the Milwaukee Police Department and two civilians were killed when a bomb exploded inside a police station. (The package was brought to the station by a local resident after it was discovered outside a church; the culprits were never caught.)

In 1941, the Supreme Court, in Edwards vs.

California, unanimously struck down a California law prohibiting people from bringing impoverished non-residents into the state.

In 1944, during World War II, U.S. bombers based on Saipan attacked Tokyo in the first raid against the Japanese capital by landbased planes.

In 1947, a group of writers, producers and directors that became known as the “Hollywood Ten” was cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about alleged Communist influence in the movie industry.

In 1963, Jack Ruby shot and mortally wounded Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy.

In 1971, a hijacker calling himself “Dan Cooper” (but who became popularly known as “D.B. Cooper”) parachuted from a Northwest Orient Airlines 727 over the Pacific Northwest after receiving $200,000 in ransom; his fate remains unknown.

1985: The hijacking of an Egyptair jetliner parked on the ground in Malta ended violently as Egyptian commandos stormed the plane. Fifty-eight people died in the raid, in addition to two others killed by the hijackers.

In 1991, singer Freddie Mercury died in London at age 45 of AIDS-related pneumonia.