TODAY IN HISTORY

1763: Britain, Spain and France signed the Treaty of Paris, ending the Seven Years’ War (also known as the French and Indian War in North America).

1840: Britain’s Queen Victoria married Prince

Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

1936: Nazi Germany’s Reichstag passed a law investing the Gestapo secret police with absolute authority, exempt from any legal review.

1959: A major tornado tore through the St. Louis area, killing 21 people and causing heavy damage.

1962: The Soviet Union exchanged captured American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers for Rudolf Abel, a Soviet spy held by the United States.

1967: The 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, dealing with presidential disability and succession, was ratified as Minnesota and Nevada adopted it.

1981: Eight people were killed when a fire set by a busboy broke out at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino.

1992: Boxer Mike Tyson was convicted in Indianapolis of raping Desiree Washington, a Miss Black America contestant. (Tyson served three years in prison.) “Roots” author Alex Haley died in Seattle at age 70.

1996: World chess champion Garry Kasparov lost the first game of a match in Philadelphia against an IBM computer dubbed “Deep Blue.” (Kasparov ended up winning the match, 4 games to 2; he was defeated by Deep Blue in a rematch the following year.)

2005: North Korea boasted publicly for the first time that it possessed nuclear weapons.

2013: Joe Paterno’s family released its response to Penn State’s report on the Jerry Sandusky scandal, attacking Louis Freeh’s conclusion that the coach hid sex abuse allegations against his longtime assistant. Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford took charge of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

2015: NBC announced it was suspending Brian Williams as “Nightly News” anchor and managing editor for six months without pay for misleading the public about his experiences covering the Iraq War. Jon Stewart announced he would step down as host of “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central later in the year.