This Day in History: March 26

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, left, U.S. President Jimmy Carter, center, and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin clasp hands on the north lawn of the White House after signing the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel on March 26, 1979. (AP Photo/ Bob Daugherty)

On this day, March 26 …

1979: A peace treaty is signed by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and witnessed by President Jimmy Carter at the White House.

Also on this day:

• 1812: An earthquake devastates Caracas, Venezuela, causing an estimated 26,000 deaths, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
• 1827: Ludwig van Beethoven died in Vienna.
• 1945: During World War II, Iwo Jima is fully secured by U.S. forces following a final attack by Japanese soldiers.
• 1962: The U.S. Supreme Court, in Baker v. Carr, gives federal courts the power to order reapportionment of states’ legislative districts.
• 1967: Pope Paul VI issues an encyclical, "Populorum Progressio," on "the progressive development of peoples," in which he expresses concern for those trying to escape hunger, poverty, endemic disease and ignorance.
• 1988: Jesse Jackson stuns fellow Democrats by soundly defeating Michael S. Dukakis in Michigan’s Democratic presidential caucuses.
• 1989: The science-fiction TV series "Quantum Leap," starring Scott Bakula as an errant time-traveler, premieres on NBC.
• 1992: A judge in Indianapolis sentences former heavyweight boxing champion MikeTyson to six years in prison for raping a Miss Black America contestant. (Tyson would end up serving three years.)

A truck containing some of the bodies of the Heaven's Gate cult, which committed mass suicide, is shown outside the cult's compound in San Diego, Calif. (AP Photo)

• 1997: The bodies of 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate techno-religious cult who committed suicide are found inside a rented mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.
• 2009: President Barack Obama holds an Internet town hall from the White House as he makes a direct sales pitch for his $3.6 trillion budget.
• 2009: A Soyuz capsule carrying a Russian-American crew and U.S billionaire space tourist Charles Simonyi blasts off for the International Space Station.
• 2009: All-Star Major League Baseball shortstop Miguel Tejada receives a sentence of a year’s probation for misleading Congress about an ex-teammate’s use of performance-enhancing drugs.

FILE --  Amanda Knox. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

• 2013: Italy’s top criminal court overturns the acquittal of American Amanda Knox in the murder of British roommate Meredith Kercher and orders Knox to stand trial again.
• 2018: The Commerce Department says the 2020 U.S. Census would include a question about citizenship status; opponents say the question would discourage immigrants from responding to the census. 

• 2018: A toxicology report obtained by The Associated Press reveals that the late pop music superstar Prince had levels of fentanyl in his body that multiple experts described as "exceedingly high." 
• 2019: Rockland County in New York declares a state of emergency after more than 100 people are diagnosed with measles.

Video

• 2019: New York Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal, a sweeping Democratic proposal for dealing with climate change, fails to pass a procedural vote as the Senate does not reach the 60 votes necessary to begin debate on the non-binding resolution. (Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., along with 42 Democrats, voted "present.")