On September 19, 1985, the Mexico City area was struck by a devastating earthquake that killed at least 9,500 people.

Ten years ago

North Korea pledged to drop its nuclear weapons development and rejoin international arms treaties, but its leaders backpedaled the next day, demanding civilian nuclear reactors from the U.S. In a statement aired on a pan-Arab TV station, Al-Qaida deputy Ayman al-Zawahri said his terror network had carried out the July 7 London bombings that killed 52 people.

Five years ago

The BP oil well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico was declared “effectively dead” by retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government’s point man on the blowout disaster, after it was sealed with a permanent cement plug.

One year ago

President Barack Obama signed legislation authorizing the military to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels fighting Islamic State militants in the Middle East. Shortly after President Obama and his daughters left the White House by helicopter, a man with a knife jumped the fence and made it into the presidential residence before being tackled. (Omar Gonzalez, an Army veteran with mental health issues, was later sentenced to 17 months in prison.)

— By The Associated Press