TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1940

The Netherlands surrendered to invading German forces during World War II.

ALSO ON THIS DATE 1643

Louis XIV became King of France at age 4 upon the death of his father, Louis XIII.

1796

English physician Edward Jenner inoculated 8-year-old James Phipps against smallpox by using cowpox matter.

1804

The Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the Louisiana Territory as well as the Pacific Northwest left camp near present-day Hartford, Illinois.

1948

According to the current-era calendar, the independent state of Israel was proclaimed in Tel Aviv by David BenGurion, who became its first prime minister; U.S. President Harry S. Truman immediately recognized the new nation.

1955

Representatives from eight Communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, signed the Warsaw Pact in Poland. (The Pact was dissolved in 1991.)

1988

27 people, mostly teens, were killed when their church bus collided with a pickup truck going the wrong direction on a highway near Carrollton, Kentucky. (Truck driver Larry Mahoney served 9 1⁄2 years in prison for manslaughter.)

1998

Singer-actor Frank Sinatra died at a Los Angeles hospital at age 82. The hit sitcom “Seinfeld” aired its final episode after nine years on NBC.

2001

The Supreme Court ruled 8-0 that there is no exception in federal law for people to use marijuana for medical purposes.

2003

More than 100 immigrants were abandoned in a locked trailer at a Texas truck stop; 19 of them died. (Truck driver Tyrone Williams was later sentenced to nearly 34 years in prison for his role in the deaths.)

2008

The Interior Department declared the polar bear a threatened species because of the loss of Arctic sea ice. In 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned doctors about a serious rare inflammatory condition in children linked with the coronavirus.

2012

President Barack Obama sought to tarnish Republican Mitt Romney as a corporate titan who got rich by cutting rather than creating jobs; Romney’s campaign responded that the former Massachusetts governor alone helped spur more public and private jobs than Obama had.

2017

Emmanuel Macron swept into office as France’s new president, pledging to fortify the European Union, redesign French politics and glue together his divided nation. Five days after South Korea elected a president who expressed a desire to reach out to North Korea, Pyongyang sent a challenge to its rival’s new leader by test-firing a ballistic missile.