(Continued from page 25)

broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. in New York.
• In 1947, a coal mine explosion in Centralia, Ill., claimed 111 lives.
• In 1957, the Treaty of Rome established the European Economic Community.
• In 1963, private pilot Ralph Flores and his 21-year-old passenger, Helen Klaben, were rescued after being stranded for seven weeks in brutally cold conditions in the Yukon after their plane crashed.
• In 1975, King Faisal (FY'-suhl) of Saudi Arabia was shot to death by a nephew with a history of mental illness. (The nephew was beheaded in June 1975.)
• In 1988, in New York City's so-called "Preppie Killer" case, Robert Chambers Jr. pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the death of 18-year-old Jennifer Levin. (Chambers received a sentence of 5 to 15 years in prison; he was released in 2003.)
• In 1990, 87 people, most of them Honduran and Dominican immigrants, were killed when fire raced through an illegal social club in New York City.
•
• Ten years ago: The Senate voted to slash President George W. Bush's proposed $726 billion tax-cutting package in half, handing the president a defeat on the foundation of his plan to awaken the nation's slumbering economy. Former Waterbury, Conn., mayor Philip Giordano was convicted by a federal jury of violating the civil rights of two preteen girls by sexually abusing them. (Giordano was later sentenced to 37 years in federal prison.)
• Five years ago: The Defense Department said it had mistakenly shipped electrical fuses for an intercontinental ballistic missile to Taiwan. (Once the error was discovered, the military quickly recovered the four fuses.) Herb Peterson, the inventor of McDonald's Egg McMuffin, died in Santa Barbara, Calif., at age 89.
• One year ago: President Barack Obama arrived in South Korea, where he visited the Demilitarized Zone separating the South from the communist North, telling American troops stationed nearby they were protectors of "freedom's frontier." Pope Benedict XVI, on his first trip to Latin America, urged Mexicans to wield their faith against drug violence, poverty and other ills, celebrating Mass before a sea of worshippers in Silao.
•
• Today's Birthdays: Modeling agency founder Eileen Ford is 91. Movie reviewer Gene Shalit is 87. Former astronaut James Lovell is 85. Feminist activist and author Gloria Steinem is 79. Singer Anita Bryant is 73. Singer Aretha Franklin is 71. Actor Paul Michael Glaser is 70. Singer Elton John is 66. Actress Bonnie Bedelia is 65. Actress-comedian Mary Gross is 60. Actor James McDaniel is 55. Former Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., is 55. Rock musician Steve Norman (Spandau Ballet) is 53.

(Continued on page 27)