TODAY IN HISTORY

1865

President Abraham Lincoln and Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens held a shipboard peace conference off the Virginia coast; the talks deadlocked over the issue of Southern autonomy.

1917

The United States broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, the same day an American cargo ship, the SS Housatonic, was sunk by a Uboat off Britain after the crew was allowed to board lifeboats.

1943

During World War II, the U.S. transport ship SS Dorchester, which was carrying troops to Greenland, sank after being hit by a German torpedo in the Labrador Sea; of the more than 900 men aboard, only some 230 survived.

1959

Rock-and-roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson died in a small plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.

1966

The Soviet probe Luna 9 became the first manmade object to make a soft landing on the moon.

1988

The U.S. House of Representatives handed President Ronald Reagan a major defeat, rejecting his request for $36.2million in new aid to the Nicaraguan Contras by a vote of 219-211.

1994

The space shuttle Discovery lifted off, carrying Sergei Krikalev (Sur’-gay Kree’-kuh-lev), the first Russian cosmonaut to fly aboard a U.S. spacecraft.

1995

The space shuttle Discovery blasted off with a woman, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Eileen Collins, in the pilot’s seat for the first time in NASA history.

1998

A U.S. Marine plane sliced through the cable of a ski gondola in Italy, causing the car to plunge hundreds of feet, killing all 20people inside.

2006

An Egyptian passenger ferry sank in the Red Sea during bad weather, killing more than 1,000passengers.

2009

Eric Holder became the first Black U.S. attorney general as he was sworn in by Vice President Joe Biden.

2020

In closing arguments at President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial, Democratic prosecutors urged senators to stop a “runaway presidency” and recognize Trump’s actions in Ukraine as part of a pattern of behavior that would allow him to “cheat” in the 2020 election; Trump’s defenders accused Democrats of trying to undo the 2016election and said voters should decide Trump’s fate.