TODAY INHISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT 2002

President George W. Bush signed legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security, and appointed Tomridge to be its head.

1963

The body of President John F. Kennedy was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery; his widow, Jacqueline, lighted an “eternal flame” at the gravesite.

1986

The Iran- Contra affair erupted as President Ronald Reagan and Attorney General Edwin Meese revealed that profits from secret arms sales to Iran had been diverted to Nicaraguan rebels.

1999

Elian Gonzalez, a 5- year- old Cuban boy, was rescued by a pair of sport fishermen off the coast of Florida, setting off an international custody battle.

2001

As the war in Afghanistan entered its eighth week, CIA officer Johnny “Mike” Spann was killed during a prison uprising in Mazar- eSharif, becoming America’s first combat casualty of the conflict.

2014

Attorneys for Michael Brown’s family vowed to push for federal charges against the Ferguson, Missouri, police officer who killed the Black 18- yearold, a day after a grand jury declined to indict Darren Wilson. President Barack Obama sharply rebuked protesters for racially charged violence in Ferguson, saying there was no excuse for burning buildings, torching cars and destroying other property.

2016

Fidel Castro, who led his rebels to victorious revolution in 1959, embraced Soviet- style communism and defied the power of 10 U. S. presidents during his half- century of rule in Cuba, died at age 90.

2018

U. S. border agents fired tear gas on hundreds of migrants protesting near the border with Mexico after some of them tried to get through the fencing andwire separating the two countries; U. S. authorities temporarily shut down the border crossing from Tijuana, Mexico, where thousands were waiting to apply for asylum.