TODAY INHISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT 1998

Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993World Trade Center bombing, was sentenced in New York to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

1815

The last major engagement of the War of 1812came to an end as U. S. forces defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans, not having gotten word of the signing of a peace treaty.

1918

President Woodrow Wilson outlined his Fourteen Points for lasting peace after World War I. Mississippi became the first state to ratify the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which established Prohibition.

1935

Rock- and- roll legend Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi.

1964

President Lyndon B. Johnson, in his State of the Union address, declared an “unconditional war on poverty in America.”

1968

The Otis Redding single “( Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” was released on the Volt label almost a month after the singer’s death in a plane crash.

1973

The Paris peace talks between the United States and North Vietnam resumed.

1982

American Telephone and Telegraph settled the Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against it by agreeing to divest itself of the 22 Bell System companies.

1994

Tonya Harding won the ladies’ U. S. Figure Skating Championship in Detroit, a day after Nancy Kerrigan dropped out because of the clubbing attack that had injured her right knee.

1997

The state of Arkansas put three men to death in the second triple execution since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976.

2004

A U. S. Black Hawk medivac helicopter crashed near Fallujah, Iraq, killing all nine soldiers aboard.

2006

The first funerals were held in West Virginia for the 12 miners who’d died in the Sago Mine disaster six days earlier.

Today’s Birthdays

Game show host Bob Eubanks is 83. Actor Harriet Sansom Harris is 66. Education Secretary Betsy Devos is 63. Singer R. Kelly is 54. Actor Ami Dolenz is 52. Reggae singer Sean Paul is 48.