TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT 2002

“American Taliban” John Walker Lindh received a 20year sentence after a sobbing plea for forgiveness before a federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia. (He was released from prison in May, 2019.)

ALSO ON THIS DATE 1814

French painter Jean-Francois Millet was born in Normandy.

1861

During the Civil War, the United States Navy authorized construction of the first ironclad ship, the USS Monitor.

1940

Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini conferred at Brenner Pass in the Alps.

1957

The Space Age began as the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, into orbit.

1970

Rock singer Janis Joplin, 27, was found dead in her Hollywood hotel room.

1976

Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz resigned in the wake of a controversy over an obscene joke he’d made that was derogatory to Black people.

1990

For the first time in nearly six decades, German lawmakers met in the Reichstag for the first meeting of reunified Germany’s parliament.

1991

26 nations, including the United States, signed the Madrid Protocol, which imposed a 50-year ban on oil exploration and mining in Antarctica.

2001

A Russian airliner flying from Israel to Siberia was accidentally downed by a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile over the Black Sea, killing all 78 people aboard. Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants hit his 70th home run to tie Mark McGwire’s 1998 record in a 10-2victory over the Houston Astros.