Today in history
On April 29, 1429, Joan of Arc entered the besieged city of Orleans to lead a victory over the English. In 1861 Maryland’s House of Delegates voted against seceding fromthe Union. In 186 2New Orleans fell to Union forces during the Civil War. In1863 newspaper publisher William Randolph Hear st was born in San Francisco.
In 1899 jazz legend Duke Ellington was born in Washington. In 1901 Hirohito, Japan’s longest-reigning monarch, was born in Tokyo.
In1916 the Easter Rising in Dublin collapsed as Irish nationalists surrendered to British authorities. In 1936 conductor Zubin Mehta was born in Bombay.
In1945, during World War II, American soldiers liberated the Dachau concentration camp; the sameday, Adolf Hitler married Eva Braun and designated Adm. Karl Doenitz his successor. In194628 former Japanese leaders were indicted aswar criminals. In 1974 President Richard Nixon announced hewas releasing edited transcripts of some secretly made White House tape recordings related to Water gate.
In 1981 truck driver Peter Sutcliffe admitted in a London court to being the “Yorkshire Ripper,” the killer of 13 womenin northern England during a five-year period. In1983 Harold Washington was sworn in as the first African-American mayor of Chicago.
In1992 riots erupted in Los Angeles after a suburban jury acquitted four police officers on charges of assault and excessive force in the videotaped beating of unarmed motorist Rodney King, above. (Eventually, 54 deaths and $1 billion damage would be attributed to the riots.)
In 1995 rescue workers in Oklahoma City continued the grim task of searching for bodies and pulling debris fromthe bombed-out Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, where the remains of more than 120 of the168 victims had been recovered.
In 1996 former CIA Director William Colby was presumed drowned by authorities in Maryland after an apparent boating accident; his body was later recovered.
In1997 a world wide treaty to ban chemical weapons went into effect. Also in 1997 Mike Royko, Chicago columnist for 34 years whosework had appeared in the Tribune since1984 andwas syndicated to 800 newspapers, died at Northwestern Memorial Hospital; hewas 64.
In 1999 Yugoslavia filed World Court cases against 10 alliance members, including the United States, claiming their bombing campaign breached international law. (The World Court ended up rejecting Yugoslavia’s request for an immediate cease-fire.)
In 200 0Lennox Lewis knocked out Michael Grant in the second round at Madison Square Garden in New York to retain his WBC and IBF heavyweight titles.
In2002, a year after the loss of a seat it had held for more than 50 years, the United States won election to the U.N. Human Rights Commission. In 2003 the Palestinian parliament approved Mahmoud Abbas as prime minister.