Today in History: November 18, deaths at Jonestown

Today in History Today is Friday, Nov. 18, the 322nd day of 2022. There are 43 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On Nov. 18, 1978, U.S. Rep. Leo J. Ryan of California and four others were killed on an airstrip in Jonestown, Guyana, by members of the Peoples Temple; the killings were followed by a night of mass murder and suicide resulting in the deaths of more than 900 cult members. On this date: In 1883, the United States and Canada adopted a system of Standard Time zones. In 1936, Germany and Italy recognized the Spanish government of Francisco Franco. In 1963, the Bell System introduced the first commercial touch-tone telephone system in Carnegie and Greensburg, Pennsylvania. In 1966, U.S. Roman Catholic bishops did away with the rule against eating meat on Fridays outside of Lent. In 1976, Spain’s parliament approved a bill to establish a democracy after 37 years of dictatorship. In 1985, the comic strip ‘œCalvin and Hobbes,’� created by Bill Watterson, was first published. (The strip ran for 10 years.) In 1987, the congressional Iran-Contra committees issued their final report, saying President Ronald Reagan bore ‘œultimate responsibility’� for wrongdoing by his aides. A fire at London King’s Cross railway station claimed 31 lives. In 1991, Shiite (SHEE’-eyet) Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon freed Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland, the American dean of agriculture at the American University of Beirut. In 1999, 12 people were killed when a bonfire under construction at Texas A-and-M University collapsed. A jury in Jasper, Texas, convicted Shawn Allen Berry of murder for his role in the dragging death of James Byrd Jr., but spared him the death penalty. In 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled 4-to-3 that the state constitution guaranteed gay couples the right to marry. In 2005, eight months after Robert Blake was acquitted at a criminal trial of murdering his wife, a civil jury decided the actor was behind the slaying and ordered him to pay Bonny Lee Bakley’s children $30 million. In 2020, President Donald Trump filed for a recount of Wisconsin’s two largest Democratic counties, paying the required $3 million cost and alleging that they were the sites of the ‘œworst irregularities’� although no evidence of illegal activity had been presented. (The recounts resulted in a slightly larger lead for Democrat Joe Biden.) Ten years ago: In the deadliest single attack in Israel’s offensive against Islamic militants, 12 people were killed when an Israeli missile ripped through a two-story home in a residential area of Gaza City. Justin Bieber dominated the American Music Awards in Los Angeles, winning three trophies, including artist of the year. Five years ago: Large crowds of demonstrators turned Zimbabwe’s capital into a carnival ground, showing disdain for President Robert Mugabe and urging him to quit immediately; Mugabe was now powerless and had been placed under house arrest by the military command. After heading Northern Ireland’s Sinn Fein party for more than 30 years, Gerry Adams announced that he was stepping down.