This week in history

Today

1936 - Daytona Beach, Fla., stages its first race strictly for stock cars on a combination beach and public roadway course.

1951 - The Lonely Hearts Killers, Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez, are executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison in New York.

Tomorrow

1917 - Several hundred Mexican guerillas under the command of Francisco "Pancho" Villa cross the U.S.-Mexican border and attack the small border town of Columbus, N.M.

1938 - Comedian Bob Hope makes his first film appearance, singing "Thanks for the Memories" in "The Big Broadcast of 1938."

1997 - Christopher Wallace, aka Notorious B.I.G., is shot to death at a stoplight in Los Angeles.

Wednesday

1945 - 300 American bombers drop almost 2,000 tons of incendiaries on Tokyo, destroying a large portion of the Japanese capital and killing 100,000 civilians.

1964 - The first Ford Mustang is produced, but won't be released to the public until April 16, 1964.

1969 - James Earl Ray pleads guilty to the assassination of black civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and is sentenced to 99 years in prison.

Thursday

1861 - In Montgomery, Ala., delegates from South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas adopt the Permanent Constitution of the Confederate States of America.

1985 - Mikhail Gorbachev is selected as the new general secretary and leader of the Soviet Union, following the death of Konstantin Chernenko the day before.

Friday

1930 - Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi begins a defiant march to the sea in protest of the British monopoly on salt, his boldest act of civil disobedience to date against British rule in India.

1969 - The London drug squad appears at the house of George Harrison and Pattie Boyd with a warrant and drug-sniffing canines.