TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT 2006

The social media website Twitter was established with the sending of the first “tweet” by co-founder Jack Dorsey, who wrote: “just setting up my twttr.”

1918

During World War I, Germany launched its Spring Offensive on the Western Front, hoping to break through the Allied lines before American reinforcements could arrive.

1945

During World War II, Allied bombers began four days of raids over Germany.

1963

The Alcatraz federal prison island in San Francisco Bay was emptied of its last inmates and closed at the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

1965

Civil rights demonstrators led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. began their third, successful march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

1972

The Supreme Court, in Dunn v. Blumstein, ruled that states may not require at least a year’s residency for voting eligibility.

1981

Michael Donald, a Black teenager in Mobile, Alabama, was abducted, tortured and killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan.

1986

Debi Thomas of the United States won the ladies’ title at the World Figure Skating Championships in Geneva, Switzerland, dethroning Katarina Witt of East Germany.

1990

Namibia became an independent nation as the former colony marked the end of 75 years of South African rule.

1997

President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin wrapped up their summit in Helsinki, Finland, still deadlocked over NATO expansion, but able to agree on slashing nuclear weapons arsenals.

2019

President Donald Trump abruptly declared that the U.S. would recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights, a major shift in American policy.