TODAY IN HISTORY
the 52nd day of 2019. There are 313 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1972, President Richard M. Nixon began his historic visit to China as he and his wife, Pat, arrived in Beijing.
In 1613, Mikhail Romanov, 16, was unanimously chosen by Russia’s national assembly to be czar, beginning a dynasty that would last three centuries.
In 1911, composer Gustav Mahler, despite a fever, conducted the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall in what turned out to be his final concert (he died the following May).
In 1916, the World War I Battle of Verdun began in France as German forces attacked; the French were able to prevail after 10 months of fighting.
In 1945, during the World War II Battle of Iwo Jima, the escort carrier USS Bismarck Sea was sunk by kamikazes with the loss of 318 men.
In 1965, black Muslim leader and civil rights activist Malcolm X, 39, was shot to death inside Harlem’s Audubon Ballroom in New York by assassins identified as members of the Nation of Islam. (Three men were convicted of murder and imprisoned; all were eventually paroled.)
In 1973, Israeli fighter planes shot down Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 over the Sinai Desert, killing all but five of the 113 people on board.
In 1975, former Attorney General John N. Mitchell, and former White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman were sentenced to 2½ to 8 years in prison for their roles in the Watergate cover-up (each ended up serving 18 months).
In 1986, Larry Wu-tai Chin, the first American found guilty of spying for China, killed himself in his Virginia jail cell. In 1992, Kristi Yamaguchi of the United States won the gold medal in
ladies’ figure skating at the Albertville Olympics; Midori Ito of Japan won the silver, Nancy Kerrigan of the U.S., the bronze.
In 2000, consumer advocate Ralph Nader announced his entry into the presidential race, bidding for the nomination of the Green Party.
In 2013, Drew Peterson, the Chicagoarea police officer who gained notoriety after his much-younger fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, vanished in 2007, was sentenced to 38 years in prison for murdering his third wife, Kathleen Savio.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Former Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe is 95. Movie director Bob Rafelson is 86. Actor Gary Lockwood is 82. Actor-director Richard Beymer is 80. Actor Peter McEnery and U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., are 79. Film/music company executive David Geffen is 76. Actress Tyne Daly, actor Anthony Daniels and Tricia Nixon Cox are 73. Former Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, is 72. Rock musician Jerry Harrison (The Heads) is 70. Actress Christine Ebersole and actor William Petersen are 66. Actor Kelsey Grammer is 64. Country singer Mary Chapin Carpenter, and actors Kim Coates and Jack Coleman are 61. Actor Christopher Atkins and rock singer Ranking Roger are 58. Actor William Baldwin is 56. Rock musician Michael Ward is 52. Actress Aunjanue Ellis and blues musician Corey Harris are 50. Country singer Eric Heatherly and rock musician Eric Wilson are 49. Rock musician Tad Kinchla (Blues Traveler) is 46. Singer Rhiannon Giddens (Carolina Chocolate Drops) is 42. Actor Tituss Burgess and actress Jennifer Love Hewitt, and comedian-actor Jordan Peele are 40. Actor Brendan Sexton III is 39. Singer Charlotte Church is 33. Actresses Ashley Greene and Ellen Page are 32. Actor Corbin Bleu is 30. Actress Hayley Orrantia is 25. Actress Sophie Turner is 23.
— Associated Press