Today In History

In 1635: The Massachusetts Bay Colony banished religious dissident Roger Williams.

In 1776: A group of Spanish missionaries settled in present-day San Francisco.

In 1888: The public was first admitted to the Washington Monument.

In 1936: The first generator at Boulder (later Hoover) Dam began transmitting electricity to Los Angeles.

In 1958: Pope Pius XII died, 19 years after he was elevated to the papacy.

In 1967: Latin American guerrilla leader Che Guevara was executed while attempting to incite revolution in Bolivia.

In 1974: Czech-born German businessman Oskar Schindler, credited with saving about 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust, died in Frankfurt, West Germany; at his request, he was buried in Jerusalem.

In 1975: Soviet scientist Andrei Sakharov received the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1985: The hijackers of the Achille Lauro cruise liner surrendered.