On this day in conspiracies

Outside the Dakota, Chapman fires a Charter Arms .38 revolver at Lennon from behind, striking him four times; a fifth round misses and hits the building's glass. Lennon staggers up into the reception area, collapses, and is driven by police to Roosevelt Hospital, where he is pronounced dead. Chapman does not flee; he waits reading 'The Catcher in the Rye' and is arrested without resistance.

In a Memphis civil suit brought by the King family against former tavern owner Loyd Jowers, a jury finds that Jowers and unnamed co-conspirators, 'including governmental agencies,' were party to a conspiracy to kill King. The family had sought only $100 in damages; the verdict is symbolic and widely questioned by historians.

This is the date a crew member would later give police as the day the captain, Chen Tai-cheng, and the engineer, Lin Chung-li, were killed aboard the vessel, weeks before the boat was found.

Vice publishes an interview-based piece tracing the meme to its creator, who states plainly that he knows Finland is a real country and that the whole thing was a joke that got out of hand. Intent, on the record, is therefore clear: this was satire from the first post.

Working with the forensic genetic genealogy firm Identifinders International, Philadelphia police publicly identify the boy as Joseph Augustus Zarelli. Both biological parents are deceased; living half-siblings, some unaware of his existence, help confirm the identification. Officials stress the killing remains an active, unsolved homicide.