Today in history: USS Forrestal accident

Boston Globe

5 days ago

In 1858, the United States and Japan signed the Harris Treaty, formalizing diplomatic relations and trading rights between the two countries.
In 1890, artist Vincent van Gogh, 37, died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in Auvers-sur-Oise, France.
In 1914, transcontinental telephone service in the US became operational with the first test conversation between New York and San Francisco.
Also that year, the Cape Cod Canal, offering a shortcut across the base of the peninsula, was officially opened to shipping traffic.
Advertisement
In 1921, Adolf Hitler became the leader of the National Socialist German Workers' (Nazi) Party.
In 1954, the first volume of JRR Tolkien's novel 'The Lord of the Rings' ('The Fellowship of the Ring') was published.
In 1957, the International Atomic Energy Agency was established.
In 1958, President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, creating NASA.
In 1967, an accidental rocket launch on the deck of the supercarrier USS Forrestal in the Gulf of Tonkin resulted in a fire and explosions that killed 134 service members.
Advertisement
In 1981, Britain's Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer in a glittering ceremony at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. (They divorced in 1996.)
In 1986, a federal jury in New York found that the National Football League had committed an antitrust violation against the rival United States Football League, but the jury ordered the NFL to pay token damages of just three dollars.
In 1994, abortion opponent Paul Hill shot and killed Dr. John Bayard Britton and Britton's escort, James H. Barrett, outside the Ladies Center clinic in Pensacola, Fla.
In 1999, a former day trader, apparently upset over stock losses, opened fire in two Atlanta brokerage offices, killing nine people and wounding 13 before shooting himself; authorities said Mark O. Barton had also killed his wife and two children.
In 2016, former suburban Chicago police officer Drew Peterson was given an additional 40 years in prison for trying to hire someone to kill the prosecutor who put him behind bars for killing his third wife.
In 2021, American Sunisa Lee won the gold medal in women's all-around gymnastics at the Tokyo Games; she was the fifth straight American woman to claim the Olympic title in the event.