TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY 1991

Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first black jurist to sit on the nation’s highest court, announced his retirement. (His departure led to the contentious nomination of Clarence Thomas to succeed him.)

ALSO ON THIS DATE: 1844

Mormon leader Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were killed by a mob in Carthage, Illinois.

1846

New York and Boston were linked by telegraph wires.

1942

The FBI announced the arrests of eight Nazi saboteurs put ashore in Florida and Long Island, New York. (All were tried and sentenced to death; six were executed while two were spared for turning themselves in and cooperating with U.S. authorities.)

1944

During World War II, American forces liberated the French port of Cherbourg from the Germans.

1950

The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution calling on member nations to help South Korea repel an invasion from the North.

1957

Hurricane Audrey slammed into coastal Louisiana and Texas as a Category 4storm; the official death toll from the storm was placed at 390.

1988

Mike Tyson retained the undisputed heavyweight crown as he knocked out Michael Spinks 91 seconds into the first round of a championship fight in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

2005

The Supreme Court ruled, in a pair of 5-4 decisions, that displaying the Ten Commandments on government property was constitutionally permissible in some cases but not in others.