On this day, March 29
1951 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted in New York of conspiracy to commit espionage for the Soviet Union. (They were executed in June 1953.)
1971 A jury in Los Angeles recommended the death penalty for Charles Manson and three female followers for the 1969 Tate-La Bianca murders. (The sentences were commuted when the California state Supreme Court struck down the death penalty in 1972.)
1973 The last United States combat troops left South Vietnam, ending America’s direct military involvement in the Vietnam War.
2002 Israeli troops stormed Yasser Arafat’s headquarters complex in the West Bank in a raid that was launched in response to anti-Israeli attacks that had killed 30 people in three days.
2004 President George W. Bush welcomed seven former Sovietbloc nations (Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Latvia and Estonia) into NATO during a White House ceremony.
2010 Two female suicide bombers blew themselves up in twin attacks on Moscow subway stations jam-packed with rush-hour passengers, killing at least 40 people and wounding more than 100.
2018 Russia announced the expulsion of more than 150 diplomats, including 60 Americans, and said it was closing a U.S. consulate in retaliation for Western expulsions of Russian diplomats over the poisoning of an ex-spy and his daughter in Britain.
2020 Country singer Joe Diffie, who had a string of hits in the 1990s, died at 61 from what a spokesman said were complications from COVID-19.
2021 The former Minneapolis police officer charged with killing George Floyd went on trial with prosecutors showing the jury video of Derek Chauvin pressing his knee on the Black man’s neck for several minutes as onlookers yelled at him repeatedly to get off and Floyd gasped that he couldn’t breathe. (Chauvin would be convicted of murder and manslaughter and sentenced to 22 ½ years in prison.)
2022 The Foo Fighters canceled all upcoming concert dates four days after the death of the band’s drummer, Taylor Hawkins.
Today’s birthdays: Author Judith Guest, 88. Former British Prime Minister Sir John Major, 81. Comedian Eric Idle, 81. Basketball Hall of Famer Walt Frazier, 79. Actor Bud Cort, 76. Actor Brendan Gleeson, 69. Pro and College Football Hall of Famer Earl Campbell, 69.