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| On this date in: | |
| 1883 | The United States and Canada adopted a system of standard time zones. |
| 1886 | Chester A. Arthur, the 21st president of the United States, died in New York at age 56. |
| 1899 | Conductor Eugene Ormandy was born in Budapest, Hungary. |
| 1923 | Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr., the first American in space, was born in East Derry, N.H. |
| 1928 | The first successful sound-synchronized animated cartoon, Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie" starring Mickey Mouse, premiered in New York. |
| 1936 | Germany and Italy recognized the Spanish government of Francisco Franco. |
| 1966 | U.S. Roman Catholic bishops did away with the rule against eating meat on Fridays. |
| 1969 | Financier and diplomat Joseph P. Kennedy died in Hyannis Port, Mass., at age 81. |
| 1969 | Apollo 12 astronauts Charles "Pete" Conrad Jr. and Alan L. Bean landed on the lunar sufrace during the second manned mission to the moon. |
| 1978 | More than 900 people died in Jonestown, Guyana, after Peoples Temple cult leader Jim Jones urged them to kill themselves by drinking cyanide-laced grape punch. Jones died of a bullet wound to the head; whether it was self-inflicted is unknown. |
| 1987 | The congressional Iran-Contra committees issued their final report, saying President Ronald Reagan bore "ultimate responsibility" for wrongdoing by his aides. |
| 1988 | President Ronald Reagan signed legislation creating a Cabinet-level drug czar and providing the death penalty for drug traffickers who kill. |
| 1991 | Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon freed Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite and educator Thomas Sutherland. |
| 1999 | A jury in Jasper, Texas, convicted Shawn Allen Berry of murder for his role in the dragging death of James Byrd Jr., but spared him the death penalty. |
| 2002 | U.N. arms inspectors returned to Iraq after a four-year hiatus, calling on Saddam Hussein's government to cooperate with their search for weapons of mass destruction. |
| 2003 | The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled 4-3 that the state constitution guarantees gay couples the right to marry. |
| 2004 | Bill Clinton's presidential library opened in Little Rock, Ark. |
| 2004 | Britain outlawed fox hunting in England and Wales. |
| 2006 | Actor Tom Cruise and actress Katie Holmes were married in Italy. |
Article of the day
Terry Waite released
Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon free Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite after more than four years of captivity. Waite, looking thinner and his hair grayer, was freed along with American educator Thomas M. Sutherland after intense negotiations by the United Nations.
Waite, special envoy of the archbishop of Canterbury, had secured the release of missionaries detained in Iran after the Islamic revolution. He also extracted British hostages from Libya and even succeeded in releasing American hostages from Lebanon in 1986.
A total of 10 captives were released through Waite's efforts before Shiite Muslims seized him during a return mission to Beirut on January 20, 1987. He was held captive for more than four years before he was finally released.
During captivity, Waite said he was frequently blindfolded, beaten and subjected to mock executions. He spent much of the time chained to a radiator, suffered from asthma and was transported in a giant refrigerator as his captors moved him about.
Waite, 52, made an impromptu, chaotic appearance before reporters in Damascus after his release to Syrian officials. He said one of his captors expressed regret as he informed Waite he was about to be released.
"He also said to me: 'We apologize for having captured you. We recognize that now this was a wrong thing to do, that holding hostages achieves no useful, constructive purpose,'" Waite said.
The release of Waite and Sutherland left five Western hostages left in Beirut--three Americans, including Terry Anderson, and two Germans. The Americans would be released by December 1991, the Germans in June 1992.
Some 96 foreign hostages were taken and held during the Lebanon hostage crisis between 1982 and 1992. The victims were mostly from Western countries, and mostly journalists, diplomats or teachers. Twenty-five of them were Americans. At least 10 hostages died in captivity. Some were murdered and others died from lack of adequate medical attention to illnesses.
The hostages were originally taken to serve as insurance against retaliation against Hezbollah, which was thought to be responsible for the killing of over 300 Americans in the Marine barracks and embassy bombings in Beirut. It was widely believed that Iran and Syria also played a role in the kidnappings.
Today Birthdays
| David Ortiz turns 33 years old today. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 AP Photo/Steve Nesius Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz turns 33 years old today.
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