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• On this date:
• In 1519, artist Leonardo da Vinci died at Cloux, France, at age 67.
• In 1670, the Hudson's Bay Co. was chartered by England's King Charles II.
• In 1863, Confederate Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was accidentally wounded by his own men at Chancellorsville, Va.; he died eight days later.
• In 1890, the Oklahoma Territory was organized.
• In 1932, Jack Benny's first radio show, sponsored by Canada Dry, made its debut on the NBC Blue Network.
• In 1936, "Peter and the Wolf," a symphonic tale for children by Sergei Prokofiev, had its world premiere in Moscow.
• In 1945, the Soviet Union announced the fall of Berlin, and the Allies announced the surrender of Nazi troops in Italy and parts of Austria.
• In 1952, the era of commercial jet passenger service began as a BOAC de Havilland Comet carrying 36 passengers took off on a multi-stop flight from London to Johannesburg, South Africa.
• In 1957, Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R-Wis., died at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland.
• In 1960, Caryl Chessman, who'd become a best-selling author and cause celebre while on death row for kidnapping, rape and robbery, was executed at San Quentin Prison in California.
• In 1972, a fire at the Sunshine silver mine in Kellogg, Idaho, claimed the lives of 91 workers who succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning. Longtime FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover died in Washington at age 77.
• In 1982, the Weather Channel made its debut.
•
• Ten years ago: Yasser Arafat emerged from his West Bank headquarters, hours after Israeli troops withdrew from his compound and released the Palestinian leader from months of confinement. The Rev. Paul Shanley, a priest at the epicenter of the clergy sex abuse scandal, turned himself in to authorities in San Diego to face charges in Massachusetts of raping boys during the 1980s. (Shanley was later convicted of repeatedly raping one boy, and was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison.)
• Five years ago: In a defeat for anti-war Democrats, Congress failed to override President George W. Bush's veto of legislation requiring the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. In a speech to construction contractors in Washington, President Bush declared al-Qaida "public enemy no. 1 in Iraq."
• One year ago: During a somber ceremony in the White House East Room, President Barack Obama bestowed the Medal of Honor posthumously on two Army

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