TODAY INHISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT 1948

Former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and several other World War II Japanese leaders were sentenced to death by a war crimes tribunal.

1927

Josef Stalin became the undisputed ruler of the Soviet Union as Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party.

1929

Grace Kelly — the future movie star and Princess of Monaco — was born in Philadelphia.

1942

The World War II naval Battle of Guadalcanal began.

1975

Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas retired because of failing health, ending a record 36- year term.

1977

The city of New Orleans elected its first Black mayor, Ernest “Dutch” Morial, the winner of a runoff.

1982

Yuri V. Andropov was elected to succeed the late Leonid I. Brezhnev as general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party’s Central Committee.

1987

The American Medical Association issued a policy statement saying it was unethical for a doctor to refuse to treat someone solely because that person had AIDS or was HIV- positive.

1990

Japanese Emperor Akihito formally assumed the Chrysanthemum Throne. Actor Eve Arden died in Beverly Hills, California, at age 82.

1994

Olympic track- and- field gold medalist Wilma Rudolph died in Brentwood, Tennessee, at age 54.

1996

A Saudi Boeing 747jetliner collided shortly after takeoff from New Delhi, India, with a Kazak Ilyushin- 76cargo plane, killing 349people.

2001

American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300headed to the Dominican Republic, crashed after takeoff from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 260people on board and five people on the ground.