On July 14, 1966, the city of Chicago awoke to the shocking news that eight student nurses had been brutally slain during the night in a South Side dormitory. The victims, ranging in age from 20 to 24, were Pamela Wilkening; Suzanne Farris; Mary Ann Jordan; Nina Jo Schmale; Valentina Pasion; Merlita Gargullo; Patricia Matusek; and Gloria Jean Davy. (One woman, Corazon Amurao, survived by hiding under a bed.) Drifter Richard Speck was convicted of the mass killing and condemned to death, but had his sentence reduced to life in prison, where he died in 1991.

Ten years ago

Israel destroyed the home and office of Hezbollah’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, and tightened its seal on Lebanon, blasting its air and road links to the outside world. Spurred by Mideast fighting, oil prices rose to an intraday record $78.40 a barrel.

Five years ago

A federal judge in Washington, D.C. declared a mistrial in baseball star Roger Clemens’ perjury trial over inadmissible evidence shown to jurors. (Clemens, who was accused of lying under oath to Congress when he denied ever using performance-enhancing drugs during his career, was acquitted in a retrial.)

One year ago

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft got humanity’s first up-close look at Pluto, sending word of its triumphant flyby across 3 billion miles to scientists waiting breathlessly back home.

— By The Associated Press