TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT 1997

President Bill Clinton made the first use of the historic line-item veto, rejecting three items in spending and tax bills.

1934

The first federal prisoners arrived at Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay.

1949

President Harry S. Truman nominated General Omar N. Bradley to become the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

1952

Hussein bin Talal was proclaimed King of Jordan, beginning a reign lasting nearly 47 years.

1960 1964

The Beatles movie “A Hard Day’s Night” had its U.S. premiere in New York.

1965

Rioting and looting that claimed 34 lives broke out in the predominantly Black Watts section of Los Angeles.

1991

Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon released two Western captives: Edward Tracy, an American held nearly five years, and Jerome Leyraud, a Frenchman who’d been abducted by a rival group three days earlier.

1992

The Mall of America, the nation’s largest shopping-entertainment center, opened in Bloomington, Minnesota.

1993

President Bill Clinton named Army Gen. John Shalikashvili to be the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, succeeding the retiring Gen. Colin Powell.

2012

Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney announced his choice of Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin to be his running mate. Usain Bolt capped his perfect London Olympics by leading Jamaica to victory in a world-record 36.84 seconds in the 4x100 meters.

2014

Academy Award-winning actor and comedian Robin Williams, 63, died in Tiburon, California, a suicide.