TODAY IN HISTORY

1794: Eli Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin, an invention that revolutionized America’s cotton industry.

1883: German political philosopher Karl Marx died in London at age 64.

1900: Congress ratified the Gold Standard Act. 1951: During the Korean War, United Nations forces recaptured Seoul.

1962: Democrat Edward M. Kennedy officially launched in Boston his successful candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat from Massachusetts once held by his brother, President John F. Kennedy. (Edward Kennedy served in the Senate for nearly 47 years.)

1964: A jury in Dallas found Jack Ruby guilty of murdering Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, and sentenced him to death. (Both the conviction and death sentence were overturned, but Ruby died before he could be retried.)

1965: Israel’s cabinet formally approved the establishment of diplomatic relations with West Germany.

1967: The body of President John F. Kennedy was moved from a temporary grave to a permanent memorial site at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

1980: A LOT (laht) Polish Airlines jet crashed while attempting to land in Warsaw, killing all 87 people aboard, including 22 members of a U.S. amateur boxing team.

1990: The Soviet Congress of People’s Deputies held a secret ballot that elected Mikhail S. Gorbachev to a new, powerful presidency.

2011: In the wake of Japan’s earthquake and tsunami and mounting nuclear crisis, President Barack Obama said that he had offered the Japanese government any assistance the United States could provide.

2020: The number of U.S. deaths from the coronavirus climbed past 50. President Donald Trump expanded a ban on travel from European countries, adding Britain and Ireland to the list. Trump said he had been tested for the virus after interactions with people who’d been infected; the White House later said the test was negative. Officials in Miami Beach ordered hundreds of college spring breakers and others from around the world to leave the beach.