TODAY INHISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

2013

Nelson Mandela was laid to rest in his childhood hometown, ending a 10- day mourning period for South Africa’s first Black president.

1791

The Bill of Rights, the first 10amendments to the U. S. Constitution, went into effect following ratification by Virginia.

1890

Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull and 11other tribe members were killed in Grand River, South Dakota, during a confrontation with Indian police.

1944

The U. S. Senate approved the promotions of Henry H. Arnold, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Douglas Macarthur and George C. Marshall to the five- star rank of General of the Army and the nominations of William D. Leahy, Ernest J. King and Chester W. Nimitz as Admirals of the Fleet.

1978

President Jimmy Carter announced he would grant diplomatic recognition to Communist China on New Year’s Day and sever official relations with Taiwan.

2000

The long- troubled Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine was closed for good.

2001

With a crash and a large dust cloud, a 50- foot tall section of steel — the last standing piece of the World Trade Center’s facade — was brought down in New York.

2009

Evangelist Oral Roberts died in Newport Beach, California, at age 91.

2012

A day after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, President Barack Obama declared that “every parent in America has a heart heavy with hurt” and said it was time to

“take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this.”

2016

A federal jury in Charleston, South Carolina, convicted Dylann Roof of slaughtering nine Black church members who had welcomed him to their Bible study.