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Today’s Highlight in History: 

Ten years ago, on April 29, 1992, deadly rioting erupted in Los Angeles after a jury in Simi Valley, Calif., acquitted four Los Angeles police officers of almost all state charges in the videotaped beating of Rodney King. 

On this date: 

In 1429, Joan of Arc entered the besieged city of Orleans to lead a victory over the English. 

In 1861, Maryland’s House of Delegates voted against seceding from the Union. 

In 1862, New Orleans fell to Union forces during the Civil War. 

In 1899, jazz legend Duke Ellington was born in Washington, D.C. 

In 1916, the Easter Rising in Dublin collapsed as Irish nationalists surrendered to British authorities. 

In 1945, American soldiers liberated the Dachau concentration camp; that same day, Adolf Hitler married Eva Braun and designated Admiral Karl Doenitz his successor. 

In 1946, 28 former Japanese leaders were indicted as war criminals. 

In 1974, President Nixon announced he was releasing edited transcripts of some secretly made White House tape recordings related to Watergate. 

In 1983, Harold Washington was sworn in as the first black mayor of Chicago. 

In 1996, former CIA Director William Colby was missing and presumed drowned in Maryland after an apparent boating accident; his body was later recovered. 

Ten years ago:  

Exxon executive Sidney Reso was kidnapped outside his Morris Township, N.J., home by Arthur Seale, a former Exxon security official, and Seale’s wife, Irene, and held for ransom; Reso died in captivity. (Arthur Seale is serving a 95-year prison term, while his wife is serving a 20-year sentence.) 

Five years ago: 

Staff Sgt. Delmar Simpson, a drill instructor at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, was convicted of raping six female trainees. (He was sentenced to 25 years in prison and dishonorably discharged.) A worldwide treaty to ban chemical weapons went into effect. Astronaut Jerry Linenger and cosmonaut Vasily Tsibliyev went on the first U.S.-Russian space walk. Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper columnist Mike Royko died in Chicago at age 64. 

One year ago:  

The International Monetary Fund endorsed a program to establish better procedures to prevent a repeat of the 1997-98 Asian currency crisis that plunged two-fifths of the world into recession. 

Today’s Birthdays:  

Actress Celeste Holm is 83. Rhythm-and-blues singer Carl Gardner (The Coasters) is 74. Singer-musician Lonnie Donegan is 71. Poet Rod McKuen is 69. Actor Keith Baxter is 69. Bluesman Otis Rush is 68. Conductor Zubin Mehta is 66. Actor Lane Smith is 66. Country singer Duane Allen (The Oak Ridge Boys) is 59. Singer Tommy James is 55. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld is 48. Actress Kate Mulgrew is 47. Actor Daniel Day-Lewis is 45. Actress Michelle Pfeiffer is 44. Actress Eve Plumb is 44. Rock musician Phil King is 42. Country singer Stephanie Bentley is 39. Singer Carnie Wilson (Wilson Phillips) is 34. Actress Uma Thurman is 32. Tennis player Andre Agassi is 32. Rapper Master P is 32. Country singer James Bonamy is 30. Rock musician Mike Hogan (The Cranberries) is 29. Actor Zane Carney is 17.