On this date in history:
In 1789, James Madison proposed the Bill of Rights, which led to the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
In 1869, Ives McGaffney of Chicago obtained a patent for a “sweeping machine,” the first vacuum cleaner.
In 1967, the USS Liberty, an intelligence ship sailing in international waters off Egypt, was attacked by Israeli jet planes and torpedo boats. Thirty-four Americans were killed in the attack, which Israel said was a case of mistaken identity.
In 1968, James Earl Ray, an escaped convict, was arrested in London and charged with the April 4 assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Ray died in prison in 1998.
In 1986, Austrian voters elected Kurt Waldheim as president. The former U.N. secretary-general’s campaign was plagued with allegations he was involved in Nazi war crimes.
In 1994, two of the major warring factions in Bosnia, the Muslim-Croat federation and the Bosnian Serbs, signed a cease-fire agreement.
In 1995, U.S. Marines rescued downed American pilot Scott O’Grady in Bosnia.
In 2001, Tropical Storm Allison strikes the Texas coast for the second time in three days. The storm would go on to kill 50 people and cause $5 billion along the gulf and northeastern coasts.
In 2003, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said he stood by his testimony before the United Nations that Iraq did have weapons of mass destruction before the war.
In 2006, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and seven others were confirmed killed in an airstrike on a house north of Baquba.
In 2009, North Korea sentenced American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling to 12 years in prison for “illegal entry.” They were released after a visit by former U.S. President Bill Clinton.
In 2011, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi vowed to fight on to the death as NATO bombed his Tripoli compound and his forces counterattacked in Misurata. Gadhafi was killed 4 1/2 months later.
In 2012, U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen, commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, apologized to the Afghan people for the deaths of 18 civilians, including children, in an airstrike.
In 2013, Princess Madeleine of Sweden married British-American businessman Christopher O’Neill.
In 2014, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was sworn in as president of Egypt.
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