This Day in History: April 29

A California Highway Patrol officer stands guard at Ninth Street and Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles as smoke rises from a fire further down the street, April 30, 1992. It was the second day of unrest in Los Angeles following the acquittal of four Los Angeles police officers in the Rodney King beating case. (AP Photo/David Longstreath)

On this day, April 29 ...

1992: A jury in Simi Valley, Calif., acquits four Los Angeles police officers of almost all state charges in the videotaped beating of Rodney King; the verdicts are followed by rioting in Los Angeles that result in 55 deaths.

Also on this day:

• 1861: The Maryland House of Delegates votes 53-13 against seceding from the Union.
• 1861: In Montgomery, Ala., Jefferson Davis asks the Confederate Congress for the authority to wage war.
• 1946: Twenty-eight Japanese ex-officials go on trial in Tokyo as war criminals; seven end up being sentenced to death.
• 1957: The SM-1, the first military nuclear power plant, is dedicated at Fort Belvoir, Va.

 Aretha Franklin. (Neon via AP, File)

• 1967: Aretha Franklin’s cover of Otis Redding’s "Respect" is released as a single by Atlantic Records.
• 1968: The counterculture rock musical "Hair" opens at Broadway’s Biltmore Theater following limited engagements off-Broadway, beginning a run of 1,750 performances.
• 2000: Tens of thousands of angry Cuban-Americans march peacefully through Miami’s Little Havana, protesting the raid in which armed federal agents forcibly removed 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez from the home of relatives.
• 2008: Then-presidential hopeful Barack Obama denounces his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, for what he termed "divisive and destructive" remarks on race.
• 2009: The World Health Organization raises its alert level for swine flu to its next-to-highest notch.

Britain's Prince William and his bride Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, leaving Westminster Abbey, London, after their wedding. (AP Photo/Tom Hevezi, File)

• 2011: Britain’s Prince William and Kate Middleton are married in a ceremony at London’s Westminster Abbey.
• 2014: Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling is banned for life by the NBA in response to racist comments he’d made in an audio recording. 
• 2019: Central Americans who traveled in a caravan to the U.S. border, hoping to turn themselves in and ask for asylum, are stalled at the border as U.S. immigration officials announce that the San Diego crossing is already at capacity. 
• 2019: T-Mobile and Sprint reach a $26.5 billion merger agreement that would reduce the U.S. wireless industry to three major players. 

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• 2019: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who frequently found himself in political hot water due to his role in the special counsel's Russia probe, submits his resignation in a departure that was long-expected.