TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT 1970

The “Chicago Seven” defendants were found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention; five were convicted of violating the Anti-riot Act of 1968.

1546

Martin Luther, leader of the Protestant Reformation in Germany, died in Eisleben.

1564

Artist Michelangelo died in Rome.

1930

Photographic evidence of Pluto was discovered by Clyde W. Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.

1943

Madame Chiang Kai-shek, wife of the Chinese leader, addressed members of the Senate and then the House, becoming the first Chinese national to address both houses of the U.S. Congress.

1960

The 8th Winter Olympic Games were formally opened in Squaw Valley, California, by Vice President Richard M. Nixon.

1967

American theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer died in Princeton, New Jersey, at age 62.

1972

The California Supreme Court struck down the state’s death penalty.

1983

13 people were shot to death at a gambling club in Seattle’s Chinatown in what became known as the Wah Mee Massacre.

1988

Anthony M. Kennedy was sworn in as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

1997

Astronauts on the space shuttle Discovery completed their tune-up of the Hubble Space Telescope after 33 hours of spacewalking; the Hubble was then released using the shuttle’s crane.

2001

Veteran FBI agent Robert Philip Hanssen was arrested, accused of spying for Russia. Auto racing star Dale Earnhardt Sr. died in a crash at the Daytona 500; he was 49.

2003

An arson attack involving two South Korean subway trains in the city of Daegu claimed 198 lives.