| On this date in: |
| 1908 |
The first Boy Scout troop was organized in England by Robert Baden-Powell. |
| 1924 |
The Russian city of St. Petersburg was renamed Leningrad in honor of late revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin. |
| 1943 |
President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill concluded a wartime conference in Casablanca, Morocco. |
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| AP Photo |
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| 1965 |
Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill died in London at age 90. |
| 1972 |
The Supreme Court struck down laws that denied welfare benefits to people who had resided in a state for less than a year. |
| 1986 |
The Voyager 2 space probe swept past Uranus, coming within 50,679 miles of the seventh planet from the sun. |
| 1987 |
Gunmen in Lebanon kidnapped educators Alann Steen, Jesse Turner, Robert Polhill and Mitheleshwar Singh. (All were later released.) |
| 1989 |
Confessed serial killer Ted Bundy was executed in Florida’s electric chair. |
| 1993 |
Retired Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall died at age 84. |
| 1995 |
The prosecution gave its opening statement in the O.J. Simpson murder trial. |
| 2003 |
The new federal Department of Homeland Security officially opened as Tom Ridge was sworn in as secretary. |
| 2004 |
NASA’s Opportunity rover landed on Mars three weeks after its identical twin, Spirit. |
| 2008 |
French bank Societe Generale announced it had uncovered a $7.14 billion fraud by a single futures trader. |
| 2011 |
Jared Lee Loughner pleaded not guilty in Phoenix to federal charges he’d tried to kill U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and two of her aides in a Tucson shooting rampage that had claimed six lives. |
