On This Day in History

Three boys in Flatwoods, West Virginia, U.S., reported seeing a ten-foot-tall (3 m) monster in the woods while investigating a UFO.

South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko died after being beaten in police custody in Port Elizabeth.

The clandestine Boricua Popular Army staged a bank robbery in West Hartford, Connecticut, making off with $7 million in the largest cash theft in U.S. history at the time.

Aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour, American Mae Jemison became the first Black woman to travel to space.

Hurricane Ismael formed off the southwest coast of Mexico; it went on to kill over a hundred people in the country.

Typhoon Maemi, the strongest recorded typhoon to strike South Korea, made landfall near Busan.

The first public release of Steam, a distribution service for computer games, was made available for download.

A Metrolink train collided head-on with a freight train in Los Angeles, California, resulting in 25 deaths and 135 injuries; the Metrolink driver had passed through a red signal, having likely been distracted by text messaging.

An explosion involving illegally stored mining detonators in Petlawad, India, killed 104 people and injured more than 150 others.