TV actor Jason Smith

Events in 1984 and 31-5

Events in the world in the birth year of Jason Smith

• Syria frees captured US Navy pilot, Lieut. Robert C. Goodman, Jr. (Jan. 3).
• US and Vatican exchange diplomats after 116-year hiatus (Jan. 10).
• Reagan orders US Marines withdrawn from Beirut international peacekeeping force (Feb. 7).
• Yuri V. Andropov dies at 69; Konstantin U. Chernenko, 72, named Soviet leader (Feb. 9). Background: Rulers of Russia since 1533
• Italy and Vatican agree to end Roman Catholicism as state religion (Feb. 18).
• Soviet Union withdraws from summer Olympic games in US, and other bloc nations follow (May 7 et seq.).
• José Napoleón Duarte, moderate, elected president of El Salvador (May 11).
• Three hundred slain as Indian Army occupies Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar (June 6).
• Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi assassinated by two Sikh bodyguards; 1,000 killed in anti-Sikh riots; son Rajiv succeeds her (Oct. 31).
• Toxic gas leaks from Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, killing 2,000 and injuring 150,000 (Dec. 3).

Birthday Jason Smith (31-5) in history

• Day 31-5 year 1790: The first U.S. Copyright Law was enacted, protecting books, maps, and other original materials.
• Day 31-5 year 1889: Heavy rains caused the South Fork Dam to collapse, sending 20 million tons of water into Johnstown, Pa. Over 2,200 people were killed and the town was nearly destroyed.
• Day 31-5 year 1911: The hull of the Titanic was launched in Belfast. At the ceremony, a White Star Line employee claimed, “Not even God himself could sink this ship.”
• Day 31-5 year 1961: South Africa became an independent republic.
• Day 31-5 year 1962: Former Gestapo official Adolf Eichmann was hanged in Israel.
• Day 31-5 year 1970: An earthquake in Peru left more than 50,000 dead.
• Day 31-5 year 2004: Alberta Martin, 97, one of the last widows of a U.S. Civil War veteran, died. She had married Confederate veteran William Martin in 1927 when she was 21 and he was 81.
• Day 31-5 year 2010: Nine people are dead after an Israeli navy commando attacks a flotilla of cargo ships and passenger boats on their way to Gaza to provide aid and supplies for the area.