Today is Sunday, Oct. 20, the 294th day of 2024. There are 72 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Oct. 20, 1977, three members of the rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd, including lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, were killed along with three others in the crash of a chartered plane near McComb, Mississippi.

Also on this date:

In 1803, the U.S. Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase.

In 1944, Gen. Douglas MacArthur returned to the Philippines during the Battle of Leyte in World War II, fulfilling a promise he made after being ordered to evacuate the country two years prior by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee opened hearings into alleged Communist influence and infiltration in the U.S. motion picture industry.

In 1967, a jury in Meridian,

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