On this date in history:

In 1865, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery in the United States.

In 1915, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, whose first wife died a year earlier, married Edith Bolling Galt.

In 1989, a pipe bomb killed Savannah, Ga., City Councilman Robert Robinson hours after another bomb was discovered at the Atlanta federal courthouse. A racial motive was cited in those and other bombing incidents.

In 1991, General Motors announced it would close 21 plants and eliminate 74,000 jobs in four years to offset record losses.

In 1997, South Koreans elected longtime leftist opposition leader Kim Dae-jong president, marking the first time a member of the opposition defeated a candidate of the New Korea Party and its predecessors.

In 2003, teenager Lee Malvo was convicted of murder in Washington-area sniper attacks that killed 10 people in 2002. (He was sentenced to life in prison. Malvo's adult companion in the shootings, John Muhammad, had been convicted earlier. Muhammad was executed in 2009.)

In 2004, the United States officially forgave all of the $4.1 billion owed the government by Iraq and urged other creditors to do the same.

In 2005, Bolivia elected Evo Morales as its first Mestizo president.

In 2006, Robert Gates was sworn in as the U.S. Defense secretary. (He served until July 1, 2011.)

In 2007, African National Congress delegates chose Jacob Zuma as their leader, ousting South African President Thabo Mbeki who had controlled the party for 10 years.

In 2008, Rwandan Col. Theoneste Bagosora was convicted of genocide by a U.N. court for his involvement in the 1994 massacre of 800,000 people.

In 2010, the U.S. Congress voted to repeal the don't ask, don't tell policy that prohibited openly gay men and women from serving in the military. (President Obama signed the measure into law four days later.)

In 2011, former Czech President Vaclav Havel, one of the leading anti-Communist dissidents of the 1970s and 1980s, died at the age of 75.

In 2012, a Death Penalty Information Center report said the United States had 43 executions in 2012, a drop of 56 percent from the peak in 1999.

In 2013, Ronnie Biggs, who took part in Britain's great train robberyin 1963, escaped from prison and avoided capture for decades, died in London at age 84.

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