Today in history

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1867

Britain’s Parliament passed, and Queen Victoria signed, the British North America Act creating the Dominion of Canada, which came into being the following July.

ALSO ON THIS DATE 1638

Swedish colonists settled in present-day Delaware.

1790

The tenth president of the United States, John Tyler, was born in Charles City County, Virginia.

1792

Sweden’s King Gustav III died, nearly two weeks after he had been shot and mortally wounded by an assassin during a masquerade party.

1912

British explorer Robert Falcon Scott, his doomed expedition stranded in an Antarctic blizzard after failing to be the first to reach the South Pole, wrote the last words of his journal: “For Gods sake look after our people.”

1936

German Chancellor Adolf Hitler claimed overwhelming victory in a plebiscite on his policies.

1943

World War II rationing of meat, fats and cheese began.

1951

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted in New York of conspiracy to commit espionage for the Soviet Union. The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “The King and I” opened on Broadway.

1962

Jack Paar hosted NBC’s “Tonight” show for the final time.

1971

Army Lt. William L. Calley Jr. was convicted of murdering 22 Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai massacre. A jury in Los Angeles recommended the death penalty for Charles Manson and three female followers for the 1969Tate-La Bianca murders.

1973

The last United States combat troops left South Vietnam, ending America’s direct military involvement in the Vietnam War.

1984

Under cover of early morning darkness, the Baltimore Colts football team left its home city of three decades and moved to Indianapolis.