This day in history

► In 1814, during the War of 1812, British forces invaded Washington, setting fire to the Capitol, the White House, and other buildings.

► In 1821, the Treaty of Cordoba was signed, granting independence to Mexico from Spain.

► In 1932, Amelia Earhart embarked on a 19-hour flight from Los Angeles to Newark, making her the first woman to fly solo, nonstop, from coast to coast.

► In 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty came into force.

► In 1954, President Eisenhower signed the

Communist Control Act, outlawing the Communist Party in the United States.

► In 1968, France became the world’s fifth thermonuclear power as it exploded a hydrogen bomb in the South Pacific.

► In 1970, an explosives-laden van left by antiwar extremists blew up outside the University of Wisconsin’s Sterling Hall in Madison, killing researcher Robert Fassnacht, 33.

► In 1981, Mark David Chapman was sentenced in New York to 20 years to life in prison for murdering John Lennon.

► In 1992, Hurricane Andrew smashed into Florida, causing $30 billion in damage; 43 US deaths were blamed on the storm.

► In 2001, President George W. Bush blamed the slumping economy for the shrinking budget surplus, rather than his tax cut, and said it was up to Congress to restrain spending. Tom Green, a Mormon fundamentalist with five wives and 30 children, was sentenced by a court in Provo, Utah, to five years in prison for his conviction on four counts of bigamy and one count of failure to pay child support. Actress Jane Greer died in Los Angeles at 76.

► In 2006, the International Astronomical Union declared that Pluto was no longer a planet, demoting it to the status of “dwarf planet.’’

► In 2010, a Chinese passenger jet broke apart and burst into flames as it hit the runway, killing 42 people and injuring 54 others. A suicide bomber and gunmen attacked a hotel near Somalia’s presidential palace; at least 32 people were killed, along with two militants.