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• In 1987, NFL players called a strike, mainly over the issue of free agency. (The 24-day walkout prompted football owners to hire replacement players.)
• In 1989, Hurricane Hugo crashed into Charleston, S.C. (the storm was blamed for 26 directly-caused U.S. deaths). Twenty-one students in Alton, Texas, died when their school bus, involved in a collision with a soft-drink delivery truck, careened into a water-filled pit.
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• Ten years ago: A defiant Iraq said it would not abide by a U.N. resolution imposing new conditions in the weapons inspections issue or threatening war. Israel planted its flag in Yasser Arafat's West Bank compound and threatened to blow up his offices in an effort to make the Palestinian leader surrender militants or leave into exile. Angelo Buono Jr., whose gruesome killing of young Los Angeles women in the 1970s earned him the nickname "Hillside Strangler," died in a California

prison; he was 67. Miss Illinois Erika Harold was crowned Miss America at the pageant in Atlantic City, N.J.
• Five years ago: One student was mortally wounded, another injured, at Delaware State University. (A suspected gunman was indicted for second-degree murder, but the case was dismissed by a judge because prosecutors withheld evidence.) The Rev. Rex Humbard, whose televangelism ministry once spanned the globe, died in Atlantis, Fla., at age 88. Tony Award-winning actress Alice Ghostley died in Los Angeles at age 83.
• One year ago: Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, two Americans jailed in Iran as spies, left Tehran for the Gulf state of Oman, closing a high-profile drama that brought more than two years of hope and heartbreak for their families. The state of Texas executed Lawrence Russell Brewer for his role in the gruesome dragging death of James Byrd Jr. The state of Georgia executed Troy Davis, who used his last words to declare his innocence in the killing of police officer Mark MacPhail. Alternative rock group R.E.M. announced on its website that it had "decided to call it a day as a band."
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• Today's Birthdays: Actor Larry Hagman is 81. Poet-songwriter Leonard Cohen is 78. Author-comedian Fannie Flagg is 71. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer is 69. Musician Don Felder is 65. Author Stephen King is 65. Basketball Hall of Famer Artis Gilmore is 63. Actor-comedian Bill Murray is 62. Hall of Fame jockey Eddie Delahoussaye is 61. Rock musician Philthy Animal is 58. Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is 55. Movie producer-writer Ethan Coen is 55. Actor-comedian Dave

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