Today in History

Gold hits a record price of $1,826 per ounce.

Edelmiro Cavazos, mayor of Santiago, Nuevo Leon, is found handcuffed, blindfolded and dead following his abduction three days earlier. He had championed crackdowns on organized crime and police corruption.

Historic Kapelbrug (chapel bridge) in Luzern, Switzerland, burns, destroying 147 of its decorative paintings. It was built in 1365.

Dennis Rader, the BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill) killer receives 10 consecutive life sentences. He had terrorized Wichita, Kansas, murdering 10 people between 1974 and 1991.

A group of hard-line communist leaders unhappy with the drift toward the collapse of the Soviet Union seize control of the government in Moscow and place President Mikhail S. Gorbachev under house arrest

Republican Convention in New Orleans nominate the George H.W. Bush-Dan Quayle ticket.

Ohio nurse Donald Harvey sentenced to triple life terms for poisoning 24 patients.

Pete Rose sets record with his 13,941st plate appearance.

Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini demands a “Saint War” against Kurds.

Luna 24, the USSR’s final major lunar exploration mission, soft-lands on moon.

Hank Aaron makes his 1,378 extra-base hit, surpassing Stan Musial’s record.

Christian Slater, actor (Heathers, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Hard Rain).

Australian troops repulse a Viet Cong attack at Long Tan.

Operation Starlite marks the beginning of major U.S. ground combat operations in Vietnam.