Ten years ago: President Barack Obama said he wanted more information about chemical weapons use in the Syrian civil war before deciding on escalating U.S. military or diplomatic responses, despite earlier assertions that use of such weapons would be a "game-changer." The FDA lowered to 15 the age at which females could buy the Plan B emergency contraceptive without a prescription, and said it no longer had to be kept behind pharmacy counters. Willem-Alexander became the first Dutch king in more than a century as his mother, Beatrix, abdicated after 33 years as queen.
Five years ago: Central Americans who traveled in a caravan through Mexico to the U.S. border near San Diego began turning themselves in to U.S. authorities to seek asylum in a challenge to the Trump administration. New details emerged on a rift between White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and President Donald Trump, with one former administration official saying Kelly had privately called Trump "an idiot." (Trump announced in December that Kelly would be leaving at the end of the year.)
One year ago: Ukrainian forces fought village by village to hold back a Russian advance through the country's east, while the United Nations worked to broker an evacuation of the approximately 100,000 civilians remaining in the last Ukrainian stronghold in the bombed-out ruins of the port city of Mariupol. A tornado barreled through parts of Kansas, damaging multiple buildings, injuring several people and leaving more than 6,500 without power. Naomi Judd, the Kentucky-born singer of the Grammy-winning duo The Judds and mother of Wynonna and Ashley Judd, died at age 76.
