What Happened On This Day in History?

1793

French revolutionary writer Jean Paul Marat was stabbed to death in his bath by Charlotte Corday, who was executed four days later. Marat's slaying is depicted in the famous painting by Jacques Louis David.

1863

Rioting against the Civil War military draft erupted in New York City; about 1,000 people died over three days.

1960

John F. Kennedy won the Democratic presidential nomination at his party's convention in Los Angeles.

1967

Race-related rioting broke out in Newark, N.J.; by the time the violence ended four days later, 27 people had been killed.

1977

A 25-hour blackout hit the New York City area after lightning struck upstate power lines.

1978

Lee Iacocca was fired as president of Ford Motor Co. by chairman Henry Ford II.

1985

Live Aid, an international rock concert in London, Philadelphia, Moscow and Sydney, Australia, took place to raise money for Africa's starving people.

1994

Tonya Harding's ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, was sentenced in Portland, Ore., to two years in prison for his role in the attack on Harding's skating rival, Nancy Kerrigan. He served six months.

1998

A jury in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., ruled that the Rev. Al Sharpton and two others had defamed a former prosecutor by accusing him of raping Tawana Brawley.

1999

Angel Maturino Resendiz, suspected of being the ''railroad killer,'' surrendered in El Paso, Texas.