On This Day: Nixon, Brezhnev pledge to avoid nuclear war

On this date in history:

In 1918, an empty troop train rear-ended the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus train in Ivanhoe, Ind., killing 53 circus performers and many animals. The circus train had stopped to fix its brakes.

In 1940, France fell to Germany in World War II.

In 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union.

In 1965 movie mogul David O. Selznick, producer of Gone With The Wind, died at age 62.

In 1969, show business legend Judy Garland died of what a coroner called an unintentional overdose of sleeping pills. She was 47.

In 1973, U.S. President Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed a pledge to try to avoid nuclear war.

In 1977, former U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell entered a federal prison for Watergate crimes. He was released for medical reasons 19 months later.

In 2003, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon offered to cede responsibility for security in some West Bank and Gaza Strip areas to the Palestinians.

In 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama signed legislation authorizing the Food and Drug Administration to regulate content and marketing of tobacco products for adults. It also outlawed cigarette ads in school and playground areas and the sale of flavored cigarettes designed for young people.

In 2011, reputed former Boston crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger, indicted in 19 homicides, was captured in Santa Monica, Calif., ending a 16-year manhunt. Bulger was sentenced to life in prison.

In 2012, accused child-molester Jerry Sandusky, a former Penn State assistant football coach, was convicted on 45 sex-abuse charges. He was sentenced to up to 60 years in prison.

In 2013, the fiery crash of a stunt biplane at an air show in Dayton, Ohio, killed wing walker Jane Wicker and pilot Charlie Schwenker.

In 2015, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley called for the state assembly to vote to remove the Confederate flag from Capitol grounds in the wake of a racially motivated shooting at a church that killed nine people in Charleston.