This Week in History

March 26, 1997, San Diego County Sheriff deputies discovered the bodies of 39 members of Heaven’s Gate UFO Religious cult in Rancho Santa Fe. The members had participated in a coordinated series of ritual suicides that coincided with the closest approach of Comet Hale-Bopp.

Their website had been updated with the message: “Hale-Bopp brings closure to Haven’s Gate. Our 22 years of classroom here on...