TODAY IN HISTORY

1811

George, the Prince of Wales, was named Prince Regent due to the mental illness of his father, Britain’s King George III.

1917

The U.S. Congress passed, over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto, an act severely curtailing Asian immigration.

1918

During World War I, the Cunard liner SS Tuscania, which was transporting about 2,000 American troops to Europe, was torpedoed by a German U-boat in the Irish Sea with the loss of more than 200 people.

1922

The first edition of Reader’s Digest was published.

1937

President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed increasing the number of U.S. Supreme Court justices; the proposal, which failed in Congress, drew accusations that Roosevelt was attempting to “pack” the nation’s highest court.

1971

Apollo 14astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell stepped onto the surface of the moon in the first of two lunar excursions.

1973

Services were held at Arlington National Cemetery for U.S. Army Col. William B. Nolde, the last official American combat casualty before the Vietnam ceasefire took effect.

1983

Former Nazi Gestapo official Klaus Barbie, expelled from Bolivia, was brought to Lyon (lee-ohn’), France, to stand trial. (He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison -- he died in 1991.)

1993

President Bill Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act, granting workers up to 12 weeks unpaid leave for family emergencies.

1994

White separatist Byron De La Beckwith was convicted in Jackson, Mississippi, of murdering civil rights leader Medgar Evers in 1963, and was immediately sentenced to life in prison. (Beckwith died Jan. 21, 2001 at age 80.)

2008

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a guru to the Beatles who introduced the West to transcendental meditation, died at his home in the Dutch town of Vlodrop; he was believed to be about 90.

2014

CVS Caremark announced it would pull cigarettes and other tobacco products from its stores.