TODAY IN HISTORY

1980

Poland’s Solidarity labor movement was born with an agreement signed in Gdansk that ended a 17-day-old strike.

1992

White separatist Randy Weaver surrendered to authorities in Naples, Idaho, ending an 11-day siege by federal agents that had claimed the lives of Weaver’s wife, son and a deputy U.S. marshal.

1994

The Irish Republican Army declared a ceasefire. Russia officially ended its military presence in the former East Germany and the Baltics after half a century.

1997

Prince Charles brought Princess Diana home for the last time, escorting the body of his former wife to a Britain that was shocked, griefstricken and angered by her death in a Paris traffic accident earlier that day.

2005

New Orleans Mayor

Ray Nagin reported “a significant number of dead bodies in the water” following Hurricane Katrina; Nagin ordered virtually the entire police force to abandon search-and-rescue efforts and to instead stop increasingly hostile thieves.