Today in History

The largest Chapter 11 bankruptcy in US history is filed by Lehman Brothers financial services firm.

National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman announces a lockout of the players union.

MCI WorldCom begins operations after a landmark merger between World Com and MCI Communications.

France announces it will send 4,000 troops to join those of other nations assembling in the Persian Gulf to protect Saudi Arabia and force Iraq’s dictator Saddam Hussein to withdraw troops from occupied Kuwait.

Prince Harry of Wales, Prince of Wales; currently fourth in line of succession to the British throne.

Menachem Begin resigns as premier of Israel.

Sandra Day O’Connor is unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee to become the first female justice on the US Supreme Court.

Tom Hardy, actor; won a BAFTA Rising Star Award for Inception.

The environmental group Greenpeace is founded.

The USSR launches Zond 5, which becomes the first spaceship to orbit the moon and reenter Earth’s atmosphere.

US President Lyndon Johnson urges Congress to adopt gun control legislation in the wake of Charles Whitman’s sniper attack from the University of Texas’s Texas Tower; in all, Whitman shot and killed 15 people before being shot dead himself by an Austin police officer.

Four young African-American girls are killed by the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama.

Dan Marino, American football pro quarterback who led Miami Dolphins to 10 playoffs in his 17-year career and set many NFL passing records.

Nikita Khrushchev becomes first Soviet leader to visit the US.