1979, America's worst commercial nuclear accident occurred inside the Unit 2 reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Middletown, Pa.
1834, the U.S. Senate voted to censure President Andrew Jackson for the removal of federal deposits from the Bank of the United States.
1854, during the Crimean War, Britain and France declared war on Russia.
1896, the opera "Andrea Chenier," by Umberto Giordano, premiered in Milan.
1898, the Supreme Court, in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, ruled that a child born in the United States to Chinese immigrants was a U.S. citizen.
1930, the names of the Turkish cities of Constantinople and Angora were changed to Istanbul and Ankara.
1939, the Spanish Civil War effectively ended as Madrid fell to the forces of Francisco Franco.
1941, novelist and critic Virginia Woolf died in Lewes, England.
1942, during World War II, British naval forces raided the Nazi-occupied French port of St. Nazaire in Operation Chariot.
1969, the 34th president of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, died in Washington at age 78.
1994, absurdist playwright Eugene Ionesco died in Paris at age 84.
Ten years ago: NATO broadened its attacks on Yugoslavia to target Serb military forces in Kosovo in the fifth straight night of airstrikes; thousands of refugees flooded into Albania and Macedonia from Kosovo. The Baltimore Orioles beat a Cuban all-star team 3-2 in Havana. Venus Williams beat younger sister Serena 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 to win the Lipton Championships in the first all-sister women's final in 115 years.
Five years ago: French President Jacques Chirac's government suffered stinging defeats in regional elections seen as a vote of censure against painful economic reforms. Actor and writer Sir Peter Ustinov died in Genolier, Switzerland, at age 82. Game show host Art James died in Palm Springs, Calif., at age 74.
One year ago: President Bush declared that Iraq was standing at a defining moment as it struggled to put down heavily armed Shiite militias in new flare-ups of violence. Cuba made it legal for its citizens to own cell phones in their own names.
