TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1993

The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday was observed in all 50 states for the first time.

ALSO ON THIS DATE 1778

English navigator Captain James Cook reached the present-day Hawaiian Islands, which he named the “Sandwich Islands.”

1911

The first landing of an aircraft on a ship took place as pilot Eugene B. Ely brought his Curtiss biplane in for a safe landing on the deck of the armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania in San Francisco Harbor.

1919

The Paris Peace Conference, held to negotiate peace treaties ending the First World War, opened in Versailles, France.

1936

Nobel Prize-winning author Rudyard Kipling, 70, died in London.

1943

During World War II, Jewish insurgents in the Warsaw Ghetto launched their initial armed resistance against Nazi troops, who eventually succeeded in crushing the rebellion. The Soviets announced they’d broken through the long Nazi siege of Leningrad. A U.S. ban on the sale of pre-sliced bread — aimed at reducing bakeries’ demand for metal replacement parts — went into effect.

1949

Charles Ponzi, engineer of one of the most spectacular mass swindles in history, died destitute at a hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at age 66.

1957

A trio of B-52’s completed the first non-stop, roundthe-world flight by jet planes, landing at March Air Force Base in California after more than 45 hours aloft.

1967

Albert DeSalvo, who claimed to be the “Boston Strangler,” was convicted of armed robbery, assault and sex offenses.