On this date in...

1990...Radical Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defense League, is assassinated after a speech at the Marriott Hotel on Manhattan's East Side. The Brooklyn native had preached violence against Arabs while he lived in New York and later in Israel. Egyptian immigrant El Sayyid Nosair is later convicted in connection with Kahane's death, and in 1995 is one of nine associates of radical Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman to be convicted of plotting to blow up New York City landmarks.

1991...The body of Daily News owner Robert Maxwell is found in the Atlantic Ocean after the Czech-born media mogul falls from his yacht. Reports of Maxwell's financial difficulties lead to speculation that he may have committed suicide.

Today's New Yorker birthdays include singer Art Garfunkel, born in Queens in 1941.