TODAY INHISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT 2001

Richard C. Reid, a passenger on an American Airlines flight from Paris to miami, tried to ignite explosives in his shoes, but was subdued by flight attendants and fellow passengers.

1858

Opera composer Giacomo Puccini was born in Lucca, Italy.

1894

French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason in a court- martial that triggered worldwide charges of anti- Semitism.

1940

Author Nathanael West, 37, and hiswife, Eileen Mckenney, 27, were killed in a car crash in El Centro, Calif. while en route to the funeral of F. Scott Fitzgerald, who had died the day before.

1941

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrived in Washington for a wartime conference with President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

1944

During the World War II Battle of the Bulge, U. S. Brig. Gen. Anthony C. Mcauliffe rejected a German demand for surrender, writing “Nuts!” in his official reply.

1968

Julie Nixon married David Eisenhower in a private ceremony in New York.

1984

New York City resident Bernhard Goetz shot and wounded four youths on a Manhattan subway, claiming they were about to rob him.

1989

Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu, the last of Eastern Europe’s hard- line Communist rulers, was toppled from power in a popular uprising. Playwright Samuel Beckett died in Paris at age 83.

1991

The body of Marine Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, an American hostage slain by his terrorist captors, was recovered after it had been dumped along a highway in Lebanon.

1992

A Libyan Boeing 727jetliner crashed after a midair collision with a MIG fighter, killing all 157aboard the jetliner, and both crew members of the fighter jet.