Today in History

Pro-democracy Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng released from prison after 18 years, for health reasons.

Eric Lawes, while using a metal detector to search for a friend’s lost hammer near Hoxne, Suffolk, England, discovers the Hoxne Hoard, the largest hoard of Roman silver and gold ever found in Britain, and the largest collection of 4th and 5th century coins found anywhere within the bounds of the former Roman Empire

Salvadoran Army death squad kills six Jesuit priests and two others at Jose Simeon Canas University.

The space shuttle Columbia completes its first operational flight.

American Airlines is fined $500,000 for improper DC-10 maintenance.

U.S. planes hit Haiphong shipyard in North Vietnam for the first time.

In the last day of the fighting at Landing Zone X-Ray, regiments of the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division repulse NVA forces in the Ia Drang Valley.

After the integration of two all-white schools, 2,000 whites riot in the streets of New Orleans.

The Big Four talks, taking place in Geneva on German reunification, end in failure.

The United States joins in the condemnation of Israel for its raid on Jordan.

Peter Keefe, TV producer (Voltron); credited with introducing American audiences to Japanese animation.

President Harry S Truman rejects four-power talks on Berlin until the blockade is removed.

Eighty-eight German scientists, holding Nazi secrets, arrive in the United States.

Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, Lebanese Twelver Shi’a scholar; sometimes called the “spiritual mentor” of Hezbollah.

Chinua Achebe, Nigerian novelist.