Ten years ago: Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak denied all charges against him as he went on trial for alleged corruption and complicity in the deaths of protesters who’d helped drive him from power. (Mubarak and his security chief were sentenced to life in prison for failing to prevent the killing of hundreds of protesters; they were cleared by a higher court, but Mubarak was later sentenced to three years for corruption.) The Muscular Dystrophy Association announced that Jerry Lewis was no longer its national chairman and would not be appearing on the Labor Day telethon. Former NFL star and actor Bubba Smith died at age 66.
Five years ago: President Barack Obama cut short the sentences of 214 federal inmates, including 67 life sentences, in what the White House called the largest batch of commutations on a single day in more than a century. An Emirates Boeing 777 crash-landed in Dubai and caught fire; all 300 people on board survived, but one firefighter was killed.
One year ago: The St. Louis Cardinals became the second team sidelined by the coronavirus since the shortened baseball season began July 23; seven Cardinals players and six staff members tested positive, causing the team’s four-game series at Detroit to be postponed. (The Miami Marlins would resume play the following day after missing a week of games.) A Norwegian cruise ship line halted all trips after a coronavirus outbreak on one ship infected more than 40 people on board, most of them crew members; the cruise line had been one of the first companies to resume sailing during the pandemic.
