TODAY IN HISTORY

1630

The Massachusetts village of Shawmut changed its name to Boston.

1908

General Motors was founded in Flint, Michigan, by William C. Durant.

1974

President Gerald R. Ford announced a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam war deserters and draft-evaders.

1982

The massacre of between 1,200 and 1,400 Palestinian men, women and children at the hands of Israeli-allied Christian Phalange militiamen began in west Beirut’s Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.

1987

Two dozen countries signed the Montreal Protocol, a treaty designed to save the Earth’s ozone layer by calling on nations to reduce emissions of harmful chemicals by the year 2000.

2014

President Barack Obama declared that the Ebola epidemic in West Africa could threaten security around the world and ordered 3,000 U.S. troops to the region in emergency aid muscle.

Birthdays

Actor Janis Paige is 99. Movie director Jim McBride is 80. Actor Mickey Rourke is 69. Baseball Hall of Famer Tim Raines is 62. Comedian Molly Shannon is 57. Comedian-actor Amy Poehler is

50. Actor Alexis Bledel is

40. Actor Elena Kampouris is 24.