On this date in history:

In 1918, an empty troop train rear-ended the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus train in Ivanhoe, Ind., killing 53 circus performers and many animals. The circus train had stopped to fix its brakes.

In 1940, France fell to Germany in World War II. Nazi and French leaders signed the second armistice at Compiègne, France, in Ferdinand Foch's Railway Car.

In 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union.

In 1973, U.S. President Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed a pledge to try to avoid nuclear war.

In 1977, former U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell entered a federal prison for Watergate crimes. He was released for medical reasons 19 months later.

In 2011, reputed former Boston crime boss James Whitey Bulger, indicted in 19 homicides, was captured in Santa Monica, Calif., ending a 16-year manhunt. Bulger was sentenced to life in prison.

In 2012, accused child-molester Jerry Sandusky, a former Penn State assistant football coach, was convicted on 45 sex-abuse charges. He was sentenced to up to 60 years in prisoned and died in 2018.

In 2021, UNESCO warned in a report that Australia's Great Barrier Reef should be designated an endangered World Heritage site due to climate change.

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