TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT 1962

Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors in a game against the New York Knicks, an NBA record that still stands.

ALSO ON THIS DATE 1877

Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was declared the winner of the 1876 presidential election over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, even though Tilden had won the popular vote.

1917

Puerto Ricans were granted U.S. citizenship as President Woodrow Wilson signed the Jones-Shafroth Act.

1932

The 20th Amendment to the Constitution, which moved the date of the presidential inauguration from March 4 to January 20, was passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification.

1940

The cartoon character Elmer Fudd made his debut in the Warner Bros. animated short “Elmer’s Candid Camera,” in which the title character finds himself pitted against a rascally rabbit that was a precursor to Bugs Bunny.

1943

The three-day Battle of the Bismarck Sea began in the southwest Pacific during World War II; U.S. and Australian warplanes were able to inflict heavy damage on an Imperial Japanese convoy.

1972

The United States launched the Pioneer 10 space probe, which flew past Jupiter in late 1973, sending back images and scientific data.

1985

The government approved a screening test for AIDS that detected antibodies to the virus, allowing possibly contaminated blood to be excluded from the blood supply.

2010

Authorities in San Diego County found the body of 17-year-old Chelsea King, who’d been missing since Feb. 25, 2010.