TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY

1995

In Tokyo, 12people were killed, more than 5,500 others sickened when packages containing the deadly chemical sarin were leaked on five separate subway trains by Aum Shinrikyo cult members.

ALSO ON THIS DATE

1727

Physicist, mathematician and astronomer Sir Isaac Newton died in London.

1815

Napoleon Bonaparte returned to Paris after escaping his exile on Elba, beginning his “Hundred Days” rule.

1854

The Republican Party of the United States was founded by slavery opponents at a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin.

1922

The decommissioned USS Jupiter, converted into the first U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, was re-commissioned as the USS Langley.

1933

The state of Florida electrocuted Giuseppe Zangara for shooting to death Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak at a Miami event attended by President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, the presumed target, the previous February.

1952

The U.S. Senate ratified, 66-10, a Security Treaty with Japan.

1976

Kidnapped newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was convicted of armed robbery for her part in a bank holdup carried out by the Symbionese Liberation Army. (Hearst was sentenced to seven years in prison and released after serving 22 months.

1985

Libby Riddles of Teller became the first woman to win the Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race.

1996

A jury in Los Angeles convicted Erik and Lyle Menendez of first-degree murder in of their wealthy parents.