TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1989

A state funeral was held in Japan for Emperor Hirohito, who had died the month before at age 87.

ALSO ON THIS DATE

1582

Pope Gregory XIII issued an edict outlining his calendar reforms.

1761

Boston lawyer James Otis Jr. went to court to argue against “writs of assistance” that allowed British customs officers to arbitrarily search people’s premises, declaring: “A man’s house is his castle.”

1803

In its Marbury v. Madison decision, the Supreme Court established judicial review of the constitutionality of statutes.

1864

The first Union prisoners arrived at the Confederates’ Andersonville prison camp in Georgia.

1868

The U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Andrew Johnson by a vote of 126-47 following his attempted dismissal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton; Johnson was later acquitted by the Senate.

1942

The SS Struma, a charter ship attempting to carry nearly 800 Jewish refugees from Romania to British-mandated Palestine, was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine in the Black Sea; all but one of the refugees perished.

1994

Entertainer Dinah Shore died in Beverly Hills, California, five days before turning 78.

1996

Cuba downed two small American planes operated by the group Brothers to the Rescue that it claimed were violating Cuban airspace; all four pilots were killed.

2008

Cuba’s parliament named Raul Castro president, ending nearly 50 years of rule by his brother Fidel.