U.S. stock indices closed sharply higher as the price of crude oil made another sudden turn, the Associated Press reports. The Dow climbed 282.01 points (1.78%) to 16,167.23, the NASDAQ closed 49.18 points (1.09%) higher at 4,567.67, and the S&P 500 was up 26.53 points (1.41%) at 1,903.61. The Russell 2000 increased 20.60 points (2.07%) to 1,017.97, and the Wilshire 5000 gained 294.80 points (1.54%) to finish at 19,446.37.

On the NYSE, 3.1 billion shares changed hands, with advancing issues outnumbering declining issues more than 5 to 1. On the NASDAQ, 2.7 billion shares traded, with a more than 2 to 1 lead for advancers.

ON THIS DATE: In 1870, Kappa Alpha Theta, the first sorority, was founded at Indiana Asbury University (now DePauw University) in Greencastle, Indiana. In 1880, Thomas Edison patented the electric incandescent lamp. In 1888, the National Geographic Society was founded in Washington, D.C. In 1945, Soviet troops liberated the Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland. In 1948, Wire Recording Corporation of America announced the first magnetic tape recorder. The ‘Wireway’ machine with a built-in oscillator sold for $149.50. In 1967, at Cape Kennedy, Florida, astronauts Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee died in a flash fire during a test aboard their Apollo I spacecraft. In 1973, the Vietnam peace accords were signed in Paris. In 1984, Carl Lewis beat his own two-year-old record by 9-1/4 inches when he set a new indoor world record with a long-jump mark of 28 feet, 10-1/4 inches. In 2010, Steve Jobs unveiled the Apple iPad.