On this date in history:

In 1635, the first public school in America, the Boston Latin School, was opened.

In 1898, the first movie theater opened at the Koster and Bials Music Hall in New York City.

In 1965, more than 200 U.S. planes struck North Vietnam in one of the heaviest raids of the Vietnam War.

In 1985, former U.S. Sen. Sam Ervin died at age 88. The North Carolina Democrat directed the Senate Watergate investigation that led to President Richard Nixon's resignation.

In 1993, United Farm Workers founder Cesar Chavez died at age 66.

In 2002, Pope John Paul II met with U.S. cardinals and addressed the sexual abuse scandal that rocked the Roman Catholic Church. The pope said, The abuse which has caused this crisis is by every standard wrong and rightly considered a crime by society; it is also an appalling sin in the eyes of God. To the victims and their families, wherever they may be, I express my profound sense of solidarity and concern.

In 2006, Hungary's Socialist-Liberal coalition recaptured government control by a comfortable majority in parliamentary elections.

In 2007, former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who faced down army tanks during the fall of the Soviet Union, died of cardiac arrest at the age of 76.

In 2008, the U.S. Defense Department announced that Army Gen. David Petraeus, top American military official in Iraq, was chosen to head the Central Command, overseeing military affairs in the Middle East and Central Asia, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Petraeus, who officially moved into the position at the end of October, became director of the CIA in 2011 and resigned in 2012, acknowledging he had been involved in an extramarital affair.)

In 2010, Arizona enacted a law requiring local governments and police to crack down on illegal immigrants. The law, among other things, made it a state crime to be in the United States illegally and eased the process of making arrests.

In 2013, U.S. President Obama honored Teacher of the Year Jeff Charbonneau of Zillah, Wash. in a ceremony at the White House Rose Garden. Quoting Charbonneau, Obama said a teacher's greatest accomplishments are revealed each time a student realizes that he or she has an unlimited potential.

In 2014, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal signed a so-called guns everywhere bill that allows Georgians with concealed-carry permits to take their licensed firearms to churches, bars, school zones and certain government buildings.

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