On This Day: Jodi Arias guilty of first-degree murder

May 8 (UPI) — On this date in history:

In 1541, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto discovered the Mississippi River.

In 1909, President William Howard Taft announced he would continue the conservation policies put in place by his predecessor, President Theodore Roosevelt.

In 1915, reports issued by The Admiralty (Royal Navy) indicated that 703 of the passengers and crew of RMS Lusitania had been rescued, with more than 1,300 believed lost in the previous day’s U-boat attack.

In 1945, President Harry S. Truman officially declared V-E Day, the end of World War II in Europe.

In 1970, Let It Be, The Beatles’ final original album, was released.

In 1984, the Soviet Union declared it wouldn’t take part in the Los Angeles Olympics, citing fears about security for its athletes. The decision came four years after the United States team boycotted the Games in Moscow.

In 1988, France re-elected socialist Francois Mitterrand as president, defeating conservative Prime Minister Jacques Chirac.

In 1996, South Africa voted for a new Constitution. Its bill of rights included the right to food, housing and education.

In 2002, Cardinal Bernard Law of the Boston Roman Catholic archdiocese said he had known in 1984 about sexual-abuse charges against a former priest but had turned the matter over to aides and never followed up. The ex-priest, John Geoghan, was accused in 86 sexual-abuse cases.

In 2003, dozens of people were reported killed after the rear door of a cargo jet suddenly opened at 33,000 feet over the Democratic Republic of the Congo and passengers were sucked out of the plane. Many occupants managed to stay in the aircraft until it landed at an airport.

In 2006, Lillian Asplund, the last known U.S. survivor of the 1912 sinking of the Titanic, died of natural causes at her Shrewsbury, Mass., home. She was 99.

In 2007, Northern Ireland installed a new power-sharing government linking Catholic and Protestant parties.

In 2011, a senior al-Qaida suspect being moved from his Baghdad cell for questioning grabbed a jailer’s gun and set off a 6-hour battle that left at least 14 people dead, including the inmate.

In 2013, Jodi Arias was convicted of first-degree murder in a trial that became a cable TV and tabloid sensation. In April, 2015, she was sentenced to life in prison.

In 2016, Londoners elected Sadiq Khan as the first Muslim mayor in the capital city’s history.