Today In History

1860: The nation’s first successful silver mill began operation near Virginia City, Nev.

In 1934: The first federal prisoners arrived at the island prison Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay.

In 1954: A formal peace took hold in Indochina, ending more than seven years of fighting between the French and Communist Vietminh.

In 1965: Rioting and looting broke out in the predominantly black Watts section of Los Angeles; in the week that followed, 34 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured.

In 1984: President Reagan sparked controversy when he joked during a voice test for a paid political radio address that he had “signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.”

In 1991: Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon released two Western captives: Edward Tracy, an American held nearly five years, and Jerome Leyraud, a Frenchman abducted by a rival group three days earlier.