A GOOD DAY TO DIE

On this day in history …

In 1964, Army General Douglas MacArthur died in Washington at age 84. …

In 1975, nationalist Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek died at age 87. …

In 1976, reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes (news) died in Houston at age 72. …

In 1992, Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton died in Little Rock, Ark., at age 74. …

In 1997, Allen Ginsberg, the counterculture poet who’d shattered conventions as poet laureate of the Beat Generation, died in New York City at age 70. …

In 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death following their conviction in New York on charges of conspiring to commit espionage for the Soviet Union; co-defendant Morton Sobell was sentenced to 30 years in prison (he was released in 1969).