On this date in history:

In 1581, the English Parliament outlawed Roman Catholicism.

In 1919, the United States went legally dry when the 36th state ratified the 18th Amendment. Prohibition went into effect one year later and the amendment was repealed in 1933.

In 1942, screen star Carole Lombard, her mother and 20 other people were killed in a plane crash near Las Vegas. Lombard was the wife of actor Clark Gable.

In 1984, U.S. President Ronald Reagan called for peaceful competition with Moscow. He authorized research and development on space-age weapons capable of destroying incoming nuclear missiles -- the program known as Star Wars.

In 1990, Soviet troops entered Azerbaijan amid fighting between Christian Armenians and Islamic Azerbaijani in Azerbaijan in the waning days of the central government's power.

In 1997, the 28-year-old son of TV star Bill Cosby, Ennis Cosby, was shot to death in the Bel-Air area of Los Angeles while changing a flat tire on his car.

In 2001, President Laurent Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo was shot to death by one of his bodyguards, who was killed by other guards.

In 2006, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was sworn in as Liberia's president. She was the first female elected head of state in Africa.

In 2014, Major League Baseball announced a historic expansion of instant replay to review close calls -- starting in the 2014 season.

In 2019, British Prime Minister Theresa May survived another no-confidence vote one day after Parliament overwhelmingly struck down her Brexit plan.

Copyright 2021 by United Press International