This week in history

TODAY

1803 ÷ Tennessee passes the nation's first prohibition law, prohibiting the retail of "spirituous liquors."

1905 ÷ At the Premier Mine in Pretoria, South Africa, a 3,106-carat diamond is discovered. Christened the "Cullinan," it was the largest diamond ever found.

1945 ÷ The Soviets liberate Auschwitz.

TOMORROW

1943 ÷ The United States bombs Germany for the first time in World War II.

1967 ÷ A launch pad fire during Apollo program tests at Cape Canaveral, Fla., kills astronauts Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chafee, making them the first Americans to die in a spacecraft.

1973 ÷ The Paris Peace Accords are signed, marking the beginning of the end of the Vietnam Conflict.

WEDNESDAY

1917 ÷ The United States ends its search for Pancho Villa.

1986 ÷ At 11:38 a.m. EST, the space shuttle Challenger explodes shortly after lift-off.

1996 ÷ Jerry Seigel, the creator of Superman, passes away.

THURSDAY

1845 ÷ Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" is first published in the New York Evening Mirror.

1942 ÷ Iran signs the Treaty of Alliance with Great Britain and the Soviet Union.

1964 ÷ Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" opens in theaters.

FRIDAY

1948 ÷ Mohandas Karamchand Ghandi is assassinated in New Delhi, India, by a Hindu fanatic.

1968 ÷ The Tet Offensive begins.

1969 ÷ The Beatles give an impromptu concert on the roof of their London recording studio, marking their last public appearance.