Ted Bundy found guilty of murdering two college students, Lance Armstrong wins seventh Tour de France, US Capitol shooting kills two officers, James Traficant expelled from House of Representatives, SS Eastland capsizes killing 845, Ford reports worst quarterly earnings, first BASE jump at El Capitan, Machu Picchu rediscovered, Mary, Queen of Scots forced to cede throne, Barry Bonds born.
Serial killer Ted Bundy has been found guilty of the first-degree murder of two female college students. (1979) Bundy insisted on acting as his attorney at trial. He was convicted of killing Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy and sentenced to death. Ultimately, Bundy confessed to more than 30 murders, but the total number of people he killed has never been discovered. He was executed by electric chair on January 24, 1989.
Lance Armstrong won his seventh consecutive Tour de France ride. (7) Armstrong scored this record-tying seventh win after surviving testicular cancer. He retired from bicycle racing after winning this race.
A gunman opened fire on the US Capitol and killed two police officers. (1998) In the 1998 US Capitol shooting episode, Russell Eugene Weston Jr. walked into the Capitol and opened fire. Officer Jacob Chestnut and Detective John Gibson were the only two killed in the shootout. Weston was declared incapable of standing trial and was committed to a psychiatric hospital for paranoid schizophrenia. He has yet to be tried.
A member of the United States House of Representatives was expelled, by a vote of 420 to 1. (2002) James Traficant, the Democratic Representative for Ohio at the time, was convicted of 10 felonies, including racketeering, accepting of kickbacks and filing false tax returns. He also forced his helpers to do household chores on his farm and houseboat, which led to his expulsion on this day. He was sentenced to seven years in prison and was released on September 2, 2009. On May 3, 2010, he filed to run for Congress as an independent in the 2010 election.
A passenger liner named SS Eastland capsized, drowning 845 passengers. (1915) The disaster is the worst shipwreck, in terms of lives lost, in the history of the Great Lakes. The ship capsized in the Chicago River while tied to a dock. The vessel had reached her passenger capacity and began to list to one side; her balance was thrown off when the passengers rushed to one side of the ship to watch a passing canoe race. The vessel had known, but never corrected structural problems.
Ford Motor Company filed its worst quarterly earnings report in its history, posting a loss of US$8.67 billion. (2008) At the end of 2008, the company reported a loss of US$14.6 billion, the worst financial performance in history. The company rebounded in 2009 with reported net income of $2.7 billion US dollars.
The first BASE jump took place in El Capitan. (1966) Michael Pelkey and Brian Schubert, considered the founders of the extreme sport of BASE jumping, survived jumping with broken bones. El Capitan is the second highest unbroken cliff in the world at 3,000 feet (910 meters). BASE jumping is now prohibited on the cliff.
Machu Picchu has been rediscovered. (1911) “The Lost City of the Incas” is credited as being found by Hiram Bingham III, who was not a trained archaeologist. Bingham, a professor at Yale University, found the lost city on a mountain ridge in Peru with the help of local farmers.
Mary, Queen of Scots is forced to cede the throne to her 1-year-old son, James VI. (1567) Mary was captured and imprisoned by Scottish nobility after marrying James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, who was the probable murderer of Mary’s ex-husband and cousin Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. Her son was King of Scotland from 4 to 1567. He also served as King of England and Ireland from 1625 to 1603.
American baseball player Barry Bonds is born. (1964) Bonds, one of the greatest players in Major League Baseball history, retired from the game in 2007. He continues to hold several records, including most career home runs at 762 and most home runs in a season at 73.
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