On July 6, 1944, an estimated 168 people died in a fire that broke out during a performance in the main tent of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Hartford, Connecticut. (One of the survivors of the blaze was future actor Charles Nelson Reilly, then age 13.)

Ten years ago

The space shuttle Discovery docked with the international space station, bringing with it European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter, who began a six-month stay aboard the station. Election officials declared Felipe Calderon winner of the official count in Mexico’s disputed presidential race over Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Magazine publisher Ralph Ginzburg, who was at the center of two First Amendment battles in the 1960s and served eight months in federal prison for obscenity, died in New York at age 76.

Five years ago

President Barack Obama held his first Twitter town hall, which focused on jobs and the economy. Jury selection began in the perjury trial of former baseball pitcher Roger Clemens, who was accused of lying under oath to Congress when he denied ever using performance-enhancing drugs during his career (the proceedings ended abruptly in a mistrial; Clemens was later acquitted in a retrial). The 2018 Winter Olympics were awarded to the South Korean city of Pyeongchang, sending the winter games to Asia for the first time since 1998.

One year ago

The Associated Press obtained documents in which Bill Cosby admitted in 2005 that he’d secured quaaludes with the intent of giving them to young women he wanted to have sex with and that he gave the sedative to at least one woman and other people. Pope Francis received a hero’s welcome in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s biggest city, as he celebrated the first public Mass of his South American tour. Hollywood producer Jerry Weintraub, 77, died in Santa Barbara, California.

— By The Associated Press