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• • In 1866, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was incorporated.
• • In 1912, the RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton, England, on its ill-fated maiden voyage.
• • In 1925, the novel "The Great Gatsby," by F. Scott Fitzgerald, was first published.
• • In 1932, German president Paul Von Hindenburg was re-elected in a runoff, with Adolf Hitler coming in second.
• • In 1947, Brooklyn Dodgers president Branch Rickey purchased the contract of Jackie Robinson from the Montreal Royals.
• • In 1953, the 3-D horror movie "House of Wax," produced by Warner Bros. and starring Vincent Price, premiered in New York.
• • In 1963, the fast-attack nuclear submarine USS Thresher (SSN-593) sank during deep-diving tests east of Cape Cod, Mass., in a disaster that claimed 129 lives.
• • In 1974, Golda Meir told party leaders she was resigning as prime minister of Israel.
• • In 1998, the Northern Ireland peace talks concluded as negotiators reached a landmark settlement to end 30 years of bitter rivalries and bloody attacks.
• • In 2010, Polish President Lech Kaczynski (lehk kah-CHIN'-skee), 60, was killed in a plane crash in western Russia that also claimed the lives of his wife and top Polish political, military and church officials.
• •
• • Ten years ago: The White House declassified and released a document sent to President George W. Bush before the September 11 attacks which cited recent intelligence concerning a possible al-Qaida plot to strike inside the United States.
• • Five years ago: Police in Tracy, Calif., arrested Sunday school teacher Melissa Huckaby in connection with the death of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, whose body had been found in a suitcase. (Huckaby eventually pleaded guilty to kidnapping and murdering her daughter's playmate; she was sentenced to life without parole.) French Navy commandos stormed a sailboat held by pirates off the Somali coast, freeing four hostages; however, one hostage was killed in the operation.
• • One year ago: President Barack Obama proposed a $3.8 trillion budget that would raise taxes on smokers and wealthy Americans and trim Social Security benefits for millions. The financially beleaguered U.S. Postal Service backpedaled on its plan to end Saturday mail delivery. Robert Edwards, 87, a Nobel Prize winner from Britain whose pioneering in vitro fertilization research led to the first test tube baby, died near Cambridge, England.

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