TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT 1972

The Palestinian group Black September attacked the Israeli Olympic delegation at the Munich Games, killing 11 Israelis and a police officer. German forces killed five of the gunmen.

ALSO ON THIS DATE 1774

The first Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia.

1864

Voters in Louisiana approved a new state constitution abolishing slavery.

1939

Four days after war had broken out in Europe, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a proclamation declaring U.S. neutrality in the conflict.

1957

The novel “On the Road,” by Jack Kerouac, was first published by Viking Press.

1975

President Gerald R. Ford escaped an attempt on his life by Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, a disciple of Charles Manson, in Sacramento, California.

1984

The space shuttle Discovery ended its inaugural flight as it landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

1986

Four hijackers who had seized a Pan Am jumbo jet on the ground in Karachi, Pakistan, opened fire when the lights inside the plane failed; a total of 20 people were killed before Pakistani commandos stormed the jetliner.

1997

Breaking the royal reticence over the death of Princess Diana, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II delivered a televised address in which she called her former daughter-in-law “a remarkable person.” Mother Teresa died in Calcutta, India, at age 87; conductor Sir Georg Solti died in France at age 84.