TODAY IN HISTORY
1513: Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sighted present-day Florida.
1884: The first telephone line between Boston and New York was inaugurated.
1942: During World War II, Congress granted American servicemen free first-class mailing privileges.
1945: During World War II, General Dwight D. Eisenhower told reporters in Paris that German defenses on the Western Front had been broken.
1964: Alaska was hit by a magnitude 9.2 earthquake (the strongest on record in North America) and tsunamis that together claimed about 130 lives.
1968: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man to orbit the Earth in 1961, died when his MiG-15 jet crashed during a routine training flight near Moscow; he was 34.
1973: “The Godfather” won the Academy Award for best picture of 1972, but its star, Marlon Brando, refused to accept his Oscar for best actor. Liza Minnelli won best actress for “Cabaret.”
1977: In aviation’s worst disaster, 583 people were killed when a KLM Boeing 747, attempting to take off in heavy fog, crashed into a Pan Am 747 on an airport runway on the Canary Island of Tenerife.
1980: 123 workers died when a North Sea floating oil field platform, the Alexander Kielland, capsized during a storm.
1995: “Forrest Gump” won six Academy Awards, including best picture and a second consecutive best actor Oscar for Tom Hanks.
2015: Italy’s highest court overturned the murder conviction of Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend in the 2007 slaying of Knox’s roommate, bringing to a definitive end the high-profile case that had captivated trial-watchers on both sides of the Atlantic.
2020: The House approved a $2.2 trillion coronavirus rescue package; it was immediately signed by President Donald Trump. The president issued an order seeking to force GM to produce ventilators for coronavirus patients under the Defense Production Act. New outbreaks surged in cities including Chicago, Detroit and New Orleans; where crews rushed to build a makeshift hospital in the city’s convention center. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that he had tested positive for the coronavirus.