On this date in history:

In 1540, the Society of Jesus, known as the Jesuits, was chartered by the Roman Catholic Church.

In 1825, in England, George Stephenson operated the first locomotive to pull a passenger train.

In 1938, Queen Elizabeth christened the world's largest ocean liner with her own name during a ceremony in Scotland. The Queen Elizabeth was the sister ship of the Queen Mary, which was christened four years earlier.

In 1939, after 19 days of heavy air raids and artillery bombardment, Polish defenders of Warsaw surrendered to German forces.

In 1954, The Tonight Show made its television debut with host Steve Allen.

In 1964, the Warren Commission report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was released after a 10-month investigation, concluding that there was no conspiracy and that Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin, acted alone.

In 1998, Gerhard Schroeder led Germany's Social Democratic Party to victory in parliamentary elections, bringing to an end 16 years of power by Chancellor Helmut Kohl and his Christian Democratic Party.

In 2008, Zhai Zhigang left the Shenzhou VII spacecraft and became the first Chinese astronaut to take a space walk.

In 2010, Jimi Heselden, 62, manufacturer of the upright Segway scooter, was killed when he apparently lost control of one of the two-wheeled, self-balancing machines and ran over a cliff into a river.

In 2014, Mount Ontake, Japan's second highest volcano, erupted in a cloud of ash, killing 63 people, many of them hikers.

In 2017, Thailand's Supreme Court ruled unanimously to sentence former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to five years in prison for failing to report false and corrupt government-to-government sales in a rice-pledging scheme.

In 2021, a federal jury in Brooklyn found singer R. Kelly guilty on charges he sexually assaulted women and girls for years. A judge sentenced him to 30 years in prison.

In 2023, members of the Writers Guild of America returned to work after a 146-day strike. The guild, which has some 11,000 members, and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers reached a tentative deal the previous weekend.

Copyright 2024 by United Press International