TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT March 20, 1995

In Tokyo, 12 people 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

1413

England’s King Henry IV died; he was succeeded by Henry V.

1760

A 10-hour fire erupted in Boston, destroying 349 buildings and burning 10 ships, but claiming no lives.

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.

1942

U.S. Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur, having evacuated the Philippines at the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, told reporters in Terowie, Australia: “I came out of Bataan, and I shall return.”

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 San Francisco bank holdup carried out by the Symbionese Liberation Army.

1985

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

1990

Singer Gloria Estefan suffered a broken back when a truck rear-ended her tour bus on a snow-covered highway in Pennsylvania.

2004

Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide rallied against the U.S.-led war in Iraq on the first anniversary of the start of the conflict.