TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT 1973

Operation Homecoming began as the first release of American prisoners of war from the Vietnam conflict took place.

1809

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was born in a log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky.

1818

Chile officially proclaimed its independence, more than seven years after initially renouncing Spanish rule.

1909

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded.

1912

Pu Yi, the last emperor of China, abdicated, marking the end of the Qing Dynasty.

1914

Groundbreaking took place for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

1924 George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” premiered in New York. 1959

The redesigned Lincoln penny — with an image of the Lincoln Memorial replacing two ears of wheat on the reverse side — went into circulation.

1999

The Senate voted to acquit President Bill Clinton of perjury and obstruction of justice.

2000

Hall of Fame football coach Tom Landry, who’d led the Dallas Cowboys to five Super Bowls, died in Irving, Texas, at age 75.

2003

The U.N. nuclear agency declared North Korea in violation of international treaties, sending the dispute to the Security Council.

2019

Mexico’s most notorious drug lord, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, was convicted in New York of running an industrial-scale smuggling operation; a jury whose members’ identities were kept secret as a security measure had deliberated for six days.