TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT May 8, 1978

David R. Berkowitz pleaded guilty in a Brooklyn courtroom to murder, attempted murder and assault in connection with the “Son of Sam” shootings that claimed six lives and terrified New Yorkers.

ALSO ON THIS DATE 1429

The Siege of Orleans during the Hundred Years’ War ended as English troops withdrew after being defeated by French forces under Joan of Arc.

1541

Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto reached the Mississippi River.

1660

The British Parliament moved to restore the monarchy by declaring that Charles II had been the country’s lawful king since the execution of his father, Charles I, in 1649.

1794

Antoine Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry, was executed on the guillotine during France’s Reign of Terror.

1945

President Harry S. Truman announced on radio that Nazi Germany’s forces had surrendered, and that “the flags of freedom fly all over Europe.”

1973

Militant American Indians who had held the South Dakota hamlet of Wounded Knee for ten weeks surrendered.

1996

South Africa took another step from apartheid to democracy by adopting a constitution that guaranteed equal rights for blacks and whites.

2017

A suspect was arrested in a string of serial killings that terrified a Phoenix neighborhood, a huge break in a case that involved nine deaths and a dozen separate shootings; Aaron Juan Saucedo, 23, faces 26felony counts of homicide, aggravated assault and drive-by-shooting.