TODAY IN HISTORY 1910

Halley's Comet passed by Earth, brushing it with its tail.

1927

In America's deadliest school attack, part of a schoolhouse in Bath Township, Michigan, was blown up with explosives planted by local farmer Andrew Kehoe, who then set off a bomb in his truck; the attacks killed 38 children and six adults, including Kehoe, who'd earlier killed his wife.

1934

Congress approved, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed, the so-called “Lindbergh Act,” providing for the death penalty in cases of interstate kidnapping.

1973

Harvard law professor Archibald Cox was appointed Watergate special prosecutor by U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson.

1980

The Mount St. Helens volcano in Washington state exploded, leaving 57people dead or missing.

1981

The New York Native, a gay newspaper, carried a story concerning rumors of “an exotic new disease” among homosexuals; it was the first published report about what came to be known as AIDS.

Birthdays

Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson is 76. Actor James Stephens is 71. Tennis Hall of Famer Yannick Noah is 62. Comedian-writer Tina Fey is 52. Actor Spencer Breslin is 30.