Today In History

[Edwin1961]

Today is Friday, April 11, the 102nd day of 2008. There are 264 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:
On April 11, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which included the Fair Housing Act, a week after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

On this date:

In 1689, William III and Mary II were crowned as joint sovereigns of Britain.

In 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte abdicated as Emperor of the French and was banished to the island of Elba.

In 1898, as tensions with Spain continued to rise, President McKinley asked Congress to authorize military intervention in Cuba.

In 1899, the treaty ending the Spanish-American War was declared in effect.

In 1945, during World War II, American soldiers liberated the notorious Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald in Germany.

In 1951, President Truman relieved Gen. Douglas MacArthur of his commands in the Far East.

In 1970, Apollo 13 blasted off on its ill-fated mission to the moon. (The astronauts managed to return safely).

In 1979, Idi Amin was deposed as president of Uganda as rebels and exiles backed by Tanzanian forces seized control.

In 1988, the hijackers of a Kuwait Airways jetliner killed a second hostage, dumping his body onto the ground in Larnaca, Cyprus.

In 1988, "The Last Emperor" won best picture and best director (Bernardo Bertolucci) at the 60th annual Academy Awards ceremony; Cher won best actress for "Moonstruck," Michael Douglas best actor for "Wall Street."

Ten years ago: The executive committee of the Ulster Union Party voted 55-23 to support the Northern Ireland peace accord and its leader, David Trimble, who had outmaneuvered rebels in his ranks.

Five years ago: Ten of the main suspects in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole escaped from prison in Yemen. American troops took the northern Iraqi city of Mosul without a fight. In Cuba, three men convicted of hijacking a passenger ferry the previous week were executed by firing squad, a swift response by Fidel Castro's government to a recent string of hijackings to the United States.

One year ago: North Carolina's top prosecutor dropped all charges against three former Duke University lacrosse players accused of sexually assaulting a stripper at a party, saying the athletes were innocent victims of a "tragic rush to accuse." MSNBC announced it was dropping its simulcast of the "Imus in the Morning" radio program, responding to growing outrage about host Don Imus' racial slur against the Rutgers women's basketball team. (CBS Radio followed suit the next day.) Death claimed author Kurt Vonnegut in New York at age 84 and actor Roscoe Lee Browne in Los Angeles at age 81.

Today's Birthdays: Former New York State Gov. Hugh Carey is 89. Ethel Kennedy is 80. Actor Johnny Sheffield is 77. Actor Joel Grey is 76. Actress Louise Lasser is 69. Syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman is 67. Movie writer-director John Milius is 64. Actor Peter Riegert is 61. Actor Meshach Taylor is 61. Movie director Carl Franklin is 59. Actor Bill Irwin is 58. Country singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale is 51. Songwriter-producer Daryl Simmons is 51. Actor Lucky Vanous is 47. Country singer Steve Azar is 44. Singer Lisa Stansfield is 42. Rock musician Dylan Keefe (Marcy Playground) is 38. Actor Johnny Messner is 38. Actor Vicellous Shannon is 37. Singer Joss Stone is 21.

Thought for Today: "We have enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another." — Jonathan Swift, English satirist (1667-1745)

[Edwin1961]

Today is Saturday, April 12, the 103rd day of 2008. There are 263 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:
On April 12, 1861, the Civil War began as Confederate forces bombarded Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

On this date:
In 1606, England's King James I decreed the design of the original Union Flag, which combined the flags of England and Scotland.

In 1776, North Carolina's Fourth Provincial Congress authorized the colony's delegates to the Continental Congress to support independence from Britain.

In 1877, the catcher's mask was first used in a baseball game, by James Tyng of Harvard in a game against the Lynn Live Oaks.

In 1908, fire devastated the city of Chelsea, Mass.

In 1934, "Tender Is the Night" by F. Scott Fitzgerald was first published in book form by Charles Scribner's Sons after being serialized in Scribner's Magazine.

In 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Ga., at age 63; he was succeeded by Vice President Harry S. Truman.

In 1955, the Salk vaccine against polio was declared safe and effective.

In 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to fly in space, orbiting the earth once before making a safe landing.

In 1981, the space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on its first test flight.

In 1983, Chicagoans went to the polls to elect Harold Washington the city's first black mayor.

Ten years ago: Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams appealed to IRA supporters to accept Northern Ireland's compromise peace accord. Golfer Mark O'Meara won the Masters title in Augusta, Ga.

Five years ago: Finance officials from the seven richest industrial countries, meeting in Washington, agreed to support a new U.N. Security Council resolution as part of a global effort to rebuild Iraq and promised to begin talks on reducing Iraq's massive foreign debt burden. Rescued POW Jessica Lynch returned to the United States after treatment at a U.S. military hospital in Germany. Women's activists took their fight against the all-male Augusta National as close as they could get to the Masters tournament.

One year ago: A suicide bomber breached security in Iraq's parliament and blew himself up in the dining hall; a Sunni parliament member was killed. CBS fired Don Imus from his radio program for insulting the Rutgers women's basketball team on the air. In the evening, Imus met with team members at the New Jersey governor's mansion in Princeton; Gov. Jon S. Corzine, who was en route to that meeting, was seriously injured when his official vehicle, an SUV, crashed.

Today's Birthdays: Country singer Ned Miller is 83. Actress Jane Withers is 82. Opera singer Montserrat Caballe is 75. Actor Charles Napier is 72. Jazz musician Herbie Hancock is 68. Actor Frank Bank ("Leave It to Beaver") is 66. Rock singer John Kay (Steppenwolf) is 64. Actor Ed O'Neill is 62. Author Tom Clancy is 61. Actor Dan Lauria is 61. Talk show host David Letterman is 61. Author Scott Turow is 59. Singer David Cassidy is 58. Rhythm-and-blues singer JD Nicholas (The Commodores) is 56. Singer Pat Travers is 54. Actor Andy Garcia is 52. Movie director Walter Salles is 52. Country singer Vince Gill is 51. Actress Suzzanne Douglas is 51. Rock musician Will Sergeant (Echo & the Bunnymen) is 50. Rock singer Art Alexakis (Everclear) is 46. Country singer Deryl Dodd is 44. Folk-pop singer Amy Ray (Indigo Girls) is 44. Rock singer Nicholas Hexum (311) is 38. Actor Nicholas Brendon is 37. Actress Shannen Doherty is 37. Actress Jordana Spiro is 31. Rock musician Guy Berryman (Coldplay) is 30. Actress Claire Danes is 29. Actress Jennifer Morrison is 29. Rock singer-musician Brendon Urie (Panic at the Disco) is 21. Actress Saoirse Ronan ("Atonement") is 14.

Thought for Today: "Eternal truths will be neither true nor eternal unless they have fresh meaning for every new social situation." — President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945)

[Edwin1961]

Today is Sunday, April 13, the 104th day of 2008. There are 262 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:
On April 13, 1958, American pianist Van Cliburn, 23, won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

On this date:
In 1598, King Henry IV of France endorsed the Edict of Nantes, which granted rights to the Protestant Huguenots. (The edict was abrogated in 1685 by King Louis the XIV, who declared France entirely Catholic again.)

In 1742, Handel's "Messiah" was first performed publicly, in Dublin, Ireland.

In 1743, Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, was born in Shadwell, Va.

In 1870, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was incorporated in New York. (The original museum opened in 1872.)

In 1943, President Roosevelt dedicated the Jefferson Memorial.

In 1964, Sidney Poitier became the first black performer in a leading role to win an Academy Award, for "Lilies of the Field."

In 1965, 16-year-old Lawrence Wallace Bradford Jr. was appointed by New York Republican Jacob Javits to be the first black page of the U.S. Senate.

In 1970, Apollo 13, four-fifths of the way to the moon, was crippled when a tank containing liquid oxygen burst. (The astronauts managed to return safely.)

In 1986, Pope John Paul II visited the Great Synagogue of Rome in the first recorded papal visit of its kind to a Jewish house of worship.

In 1992, the Great Chicago Flood took place as the city's century-old tunnel system and adjacent basements filled with water from the Chicago River.

Ten years ago: NationsBank and BankAmerica announced a merger which created Bank of America, while Banc One and First Chicago NBD said they would unite. A 500-pound steel joint fell from the upper level of New York's Yankee Stadium, crashing onto seats below. (No fans were inside the park at the time).

Five years ago: U.S.-led forces announced the capture of Watban Ibrahim Hasan, a half brother of and adviser to Saddam Hussein. After three weeks of captivity, seven U.S. POW's, including Army Specialist Shoshana Johnson, were released by Iraqi troops near Tikrit, Iraq. Mike Weir became the first Canadian to win the Masters after the first sudden-death playoff in 13 years.

One year ago: Iraq's parliament met in an extraordinary session on a Friday, the Muslim day of prayer, and declared it would not bow to terrorism; a bouquet of red roses and a white lily sat in the place of a lawmaker killed in a parliament dining hall suicide bombing.

Today's Birthdays: Movie director Stanley Donen is 84. Former Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., is 75. Actor Lyle Waggoner is 73. Actor Edward Fox is 71. Playwright Lanford Wilson is 71. Actor Paul Sorvino is 69. Movie and TV composer Bill Conti is 66. Rock musician Jack Casady is 64. Actor Tony Dow is 63. Singer Al Green is 62. Actor Ron Perlman is 58. Actor William Sadler is 58. Singer Peabo Bryson is 57. "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" bandleader/rock musician Max Weinberg is 57. Bluegrass singer-musician Sam Bush is 56. Rock musician Jimmy Destri (Blondie) is 54. Singer-musician Louis Johnson (The Brothers Johnson) is 53. Comedian Gary Kroeger is 51. Actress Saundra Santiago is 51. Rock musician Joey Mazzola (Sponge) is 47. Chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov is 45. Actress Page Hannah is 44. Actress-comedian Caroline Rhea is 44. Rock musician Lisa Umbarger is 43. Rock musician Marc Ford is 42. Reggae singer Capleton is 41. Actor Ricky Schroder is 38. Singer Lou Bega is 33. Actor-producer Glenn Howerton is 32. Actress Courtney Peldon is 27. Pop singer Nellie McKay is 26.

Thought for Today: "I cannot give you the formula for success but I can give you the formula for failure — which is: Try to please everybody." — Herbert Bayard Swope, American journalist (1882-1958)

[Edwin1961]

Today is Monday, April 14, the 105th day of 2008. There are 261 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:
On April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was shot and mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth while attending the comedy "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater in Washington. (Lincoln died the following morning.)

On this date:
In 1775, the first American society for the abolition of slavery was formed in Philadelphia.

In 1828, the first edition of Noah Webster's "American Dictionary of the English Language" was published.

In 1890, the First International Conference of American States met in Washington, where delegates agreed to form the International Union of American Republics, a forerunner of the Organization of American States.

In 1902, James Cash Penney opened his first store, called The Golden Rule, in Kemmerer, Wyo.

In 1912, the British liner RMS Titanic collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic and began sinking.

In 1931, King Alfonso XIII of Spain went into exile, and the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed.

In 1939, the John Steinbeck novel "The Grapes of Wrath" was first published.

In 1968, the gay-themed play "The Boys in the Band," by Matt Crowley, opened in New York.

In 1981, the first test flight of America's first operational space shuttle, the Columbia, ended successfully with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

In 1986, Americans got first word of a U.S. air raid on Libya. (Because of the time difference, it was the early morning of April 15 when the attack occurred.)

Ten years ago: Despite international pleas for leniency, the state of Virginia executed Angel Francisco Breard, a Paraguayan convicted of murder. President Clinton moderated a town meeting on race with an all-star panel of sports figures. The Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for public service; author Philip Roth received the Pulitzer fiction award, his first, for "American Pastoral."

Five years ago: Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit fell with unexpectedly light resistance, the last Iraqi city to succumb to overpowering U.S.-led ground and air forces. U.S. commandos in Baghdad captured Abul Abbas, leader of the Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner Achille Lauro in 1985. (Abbas died in March 2004 while in U.S. custody.) Four Islamic militants were convicted in a deadly bombing outside the U.S. Consulate in Pakistan. Assailants armed with an AK-47 assault rifle and a handgun opened fire at John McDonogh High School in New Orleans, killing one youth and wounding three others.

One year ago: Riot police beat and detained protesters as thousands defied an official ban and attempted to stage a rally in Moscow against Russian President Vladimir Putin's government. A car bomb exploded near one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines in Karbala, Iraq, killing 47 people. Don Ho, who'd entertained tourists to Waikiki for decades, died in Honolulu, Hawaii, at age 76.

Today's Birthdays: Actor Bradford Dillman is 78. Actor Jay Robinson is 78. Country singer Loretta Lynn is 73. Actress Julie Christie is 68. Former baseball player Pete Rose is 67. Rock musician Ritchie Blackmore is 63. Actor John Shea is 59. Actor Brad Garrett is 48. Actor Robert Carlyle is 47. Rock singer-musician John Bell (Widespread Panic) is 46. Baseball player Greg Maddux is 42. Rock musician Barrett Martin is 41. Actor Anthony Michael Hall is 40. Actor Adrien Brody is 35. Classical singer David Miller is 35. Rapper DaBrat is 34. Actor Antwon Tanner is 33. Actress Sarah Michelle Gellar is 31. Actor-producer Rob McElhenney is 31. Actress Vivien Cardone is 15. Actress Abigail Breslin is 12.

Thought for Today: "If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, 10 angels swearing I was right would make no difference." — Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865).

[Edwin1961]

Today is Tuesday, April 15, the 106th day of 2008. There are 260 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:
In the early hours of April 15, 1912, the British luxury liner RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland, less than three hours after striking an iceberg. Some 1,500 people died.

On this date:
In 1817, the first American school for the deaf opened in Hartford, Conn.

In 1850, the city of San Francisco was incorporated.

In 1861, three days after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, S.C., President Lincoln declared a state of insurrection and called out Union troops.

In 1865, President Lincoln died, several hours after being shot at Ford's Theater in Washington by John Wilkes Booth. Andrew Johnson became the nation's 17th president.

In 1945, during World War II, British and Canadian troops liberated the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen.

In 1947, Jackie Robinson, baseball's first black major league player, made his official debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers on opening day. (The Dodgers defeated the Boston Braves, 5-3.)

In 1959, Cuban leader Fidel Castro arrived in Washington to begin a goodwill tour of the United States.

In 1986, the United States launched an air raid against Libya in response to the bombing of a discotheque in Berlin on April 5; Libya said 37 people, mostly civilians, were killed.

In 1989, 96 people died in a crush of soccer fans at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England.

In 1990, actress Greta Garbo died in New York at age 84.

Ten years ago: Pol Pot, the notorious leader of the Khmer Rouge, died at age 73, evading prosecution for the deaths of 2 million Cambodians.

Five years ago: Looters and arsonists ransacked Iraq's National Library, as well as Iraq's principal Islamic library. In the Netherlands, Volkert van der Graaf, the killer of politician Pim Fortuyn, was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Umpire Laz Diaz was attacked by a fan during a game between the Kansas City Royals and Chicago White Sox; the fan, Eric Dybas, was later sentenced to six months in jail and 30 months probation.

One year ago: Riot police beat and detained dozens of anti-Kremlin demonstrators in St. Petersburg, Russia, on a second day of protests against the government of President Vladimir Putin. Brant Parker, who illustrated "The Wizard of Id" comic strip, died in Lynchburg, Va., at age 86, just days after the passing of the strip's writer, Johnny Hart.

Today's Birthdays: Actor Michael Ansara is 86. Country singer Roy Clark is 75. Rock singer-guitarist Dave Edmunds is 64. Actress Lois Chiles is 61. Writer-producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason is 61. Actress Amy Wright is 58. Columnist Heloise is 57. Actress-screenwriter Emma Thompson is 49. Singer Samantha Fox is 42. Rock musician Ed O'Brien (Radiohead) is 40. Actor Flex Alexander is 38. Actor Danny Pino is 34. Actor-writer Seth Rogen is 26. Actress Alice Braga is 25. Actress Emma Watson is 18.

Thought for Today: "Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." — Bernard Shaw, Irish-born playwright (1856-1950)

[Edwin1961]

Today is Wednesday, April 16, the 107th day of 2008. There are 259 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:
One year ago, on April 16, 2007, in the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history, student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people on the campus of Virginia Tech before taking his own life.

On this date:
In 1789, President-elect Washington left Mount Vernon, Va., for his inauguration in New York.

In 1862, President Lincoln signed a bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia.

In 1879, Saint Bernadette, who'd described seeing visions of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes, died in Nevers, France.

In 1912, Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly across the English Channel.

In 1917, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin returned to Russia after years of exile.

In 1935, the radio comedy program "Fibber McGee and Molly" premiered on the NBC Blue Network.

In 1947, the French ship Grandcamp blew up at the harbor in Texas City, Texas; another ship, the High Flyer, exploded the following day. The blasts and resulting fires killed nearly 600 people.

In 1947, financier and presidential confidant Bernard Baruch said in a speech at the South Carolina statehouse: "Let us not be deceived — we are today in the midst of a cold war."

In 1972, Apollo 16 blasted off on a voyage to the moon.

In 1996, Britain's Prince Andrew and his wife, Sarah, the Duchess of York, announced they were in the process of getting a divorce.

Ten years ago: Paula Jones announced she would ask an appeals court to reinstate her sexual harassment lawsuit against President Clinton after it was thrown out by a federal judge. Tornadoes claimed 11 lives in Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky.

Five years ago: The Bush administration lowered the terror alert level from orange to yellow, saying the end of heavy fighting in Iraq has diminished the threat of terrorism in the United States. During a visit to a fighter jet factory in St. Louis, President Bush called for lifting economic sanctions against Iraq as commanders of both the U.S. military and the reconstruction effort prepared to move into the country. Michael Jordan played his last NBA game with the Washington Wizards, who lost to the Philadelphia 76ers, 107-87.

One year ago: Robert Cheruiyot of Kenya won the Boston Marathon for the third time; Russia's Lidiya Grigoryeva captured the women's race. Carrie Underwood's dark hit "Before He Cheats" won video of the year, female video and best video director at the fan-voted CMT Music Awards.

Today's Birthdays: Pope Benedict XVI is 81. Actor Peter Mark Richman is 81. Actress-singer Edie Adams is 81. Singer Bobby Vinton is 73. Denmark's Queen Margrethe II is 68. Basketball Hall-of-Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is 61. Singer Gerry Rafferty is 61. Football coach Bill Belichick is 56. Rock singer-turned-politician Peter Garrett is 55. Actress Ellen Barkin is 54. Rock musician Jason Scheff (Chicago) is 46. Singer Jimmy Osmond is 45. Rock singer David Pirner (Soul Asylum) is 44. Actor-comedian Martin Lawrence is 43. Actor Jon Cryer is 43. Rock musician Dan Rieser is 42. Actor Peter Billingsley is 37. Actor Lukas Haas is 32.

Thought for Today: "Only the vanquished remember history." — Marshall McLuhan, Canadian communications theorist (1911-1980)

[Edwin1961]

Today is Thursday, April 17, the 108th day of 2008. There are 258 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:
On April 17, 1961, about 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles launched the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in a failed attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro.

On this date:
In 1521, Martin Luther went before the Diet of Worms to face charges stemming from his religious writings. (He was later declared an outlaw by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.)

In 1524, Giovanni da Verrazano reached present-day New York Harbor.

In 1790, American statesman Benjamin Franklin died in Philadelphia at age 84.

In 1861, the Virginia State Convention voted to secede from the Union.

In 1941, Yugoslavia surrendered to Germany in World War II.

In 1964, Ford Motor Co. unveiled its new Mustang model at the New York World's Fair.

In 1969, a jury in Los Angeles convicted Sirhan Sirhan of assassinating Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.

In 1969, Czechoslovak Communist Party First Secretary Alexander Dubcek was deposed.

In 1970, the astronauts of Apollo 13 splashed down safely in the Pacific, four days after a ruptured oxygen tank crippled their spacecraft.

In 1990, the Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy, the civil rights activist and top aide to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., died in Atlanta at age 64.

Ten years ago: A Thai military team collected evidence from the body of Pol Pot, former chief of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge guerrillas, to lay to rest doubts that one of the century's worst tyrants was truly dead. Photographer Linda McCartney, wife of rock legend Paul McCartney, died in Tucson, Ariz., at age 56.

Five years ago: U.S. special forces in Baghdad captured Barzan Ibrahim Hasan, a half brother of and adviser to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The U.S. government awarded Bechtel Corp. a major contract for helping rebuild Iraq's power, water and sewage systems. Diet Dr. Robert C. Atkins died in New York at age 72. Songwriter Earl King died in New Orleans at age 69. Sir J. Paul Getty Jr., the reclusive third son of American oilman J. Paul Getty, died in London at age 70.

One year ago: A day after the Virginia Tech massacre, President Bush visited the campus, where he told students and teachers at a somber convocation that the nation was praying for them and "there's a power in these prayers." In Rome, a U.S. soldier went on trial in absentia for the shooting death of Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari at an Iraqi checkpoint in March 2005. (However, a court later threw out the proceedings against Spc. Mario Lozano, saying Italy had no jurisdiction.) Actress Kitty Carlisle Hart died in New York at age 96.

Today's Birthdays: Rock promoter Don Kirshner is 74. Composer-musician Jan Hammer is 60. Actress Olivia Hussey is 57. Rock singer-musician Pete Shelley (Buzzcocks) is 53. Actor Sean Bean is 49. Rock singer Maynard James Keenan (Tool) is 44. Actress Lela Rochon is 44. Actor William Mapother is 43. Actress Kimberly Elise is 41. Singer Liz Phair is 41. Rapper-actor Redman is 38. Actress Jennifer Garner is 36. Country musician Craig Anderson (Heartland) is 35. Singer Victoria Adams Beckham (Spice Girls) is 34. Actress-singer Lindsay Korman is 30. Actor Paulie Litt is 13. Actress Dee Dee Davis is 12.

Thought for Today: "A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past; he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future." — Sydney J. Harris, American journalist (1917-1986).

[Edwin1961]

Today is Friday, April 18, the 109th day of 2008. There are 257 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:
On April 18, 1906, a devastating earthquake struck San Francisco, followed by raging fires; estimates of the final death toll range between 3,000 and 6,000.

On this date:
In 1775, Paul Revere began his famous ride from Charlestown to Lexington, Mass., warning American colonists that the British were coming.

In 1907, San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel opened, a year to the day after the earthquake.

In 1934, the first laundromat (called a "washateria") opened, in Fort Worth, Texas.

In 1942, an air squadron from the USS Hornet led by Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle raided Tokyo and other Japanese cities.

In 1945, famed American war correspondent Ernie Pyle, 44, was killed by Japanese gunfire on the Pacific island of Ie Shima, off Okinawa.

In 1946, the League of Nations went out of business.

In 1978, the Senate approved the Panama Canal Treaty, providing for the complete turnover of control of the waterway to Panama on the last day of 1999.

In 1980, the independent nation of Zimbabwe, formerly Zimbabwe Rhodesia, came into being.

In 1983, 63 people, including 17 Americans, were killed at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, by a suicide bomber.

In 1988, an Israeli court convicted John Demjanjuk, a retired auto worker from Cleveland, of committing war crimes at the Treblinka death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. (However, Israel's Supreme Court later overturned Demjanjuk's conviction.)

Ten years ago: Despite fierce internal dissent, Northern Ireland's main Protestant party, the Ulster Unionists, approved a peace agreement. The remains of Pol Pot were cremated, three days after the Khmer Rouge leader blamed for the killings of up to 2 million Cambodians died at age 73. Former North Carolina Gov. and U.S. Sen. Terry Sanford died in Durham at age 80.

Five years ago: Iraqi police arrested Saddam Hussein's former finance minister (Hikmat Mizban Ibrahim al-Azzawi) and turned him over to the U.S. Marines. Scott Peterson was arrested in San Diego in the death of his wife, Laci, who was eight months pregnant when she vanished on Christmas Eve. (Peterson was later convicted and sentenced to death.)

One year ago: The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, upheld the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act that Congress passed and President Bush signed into law in 2003. Four large bombs exploded in mainly Shiite locations of Baghdad, killing at least 183 people. Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox faced the minimum 27 batters in a 6-0 no-hit victory over the Texas Rangers. Curtis Strange and Hubert Green joined the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Today's Birthdays: Actress Barbara Hale is 87. Actor Clive Revill is 78. Actor James Drury is 74. Actor Robert Hooks is 71. Actress Hayley Mills is 62. Actor James Woods is 61. Actress-director Dorothy Lyman is 61. Actress Cindy Pickett is 61. Country musician Walt Richmond (The Tractors) is 61. Country musician Jim Scholten (Sawyer Brown) is 56. Actor Rick Moranis is 55. Actress Melody Thomas Scott is 52. Actor Eric Roberts is 52. Actor John James is 52. Rock musician Les Pattinson (Echo and the Bunnymen) is 50. Actress Jane Leeves is 47. Talk show host Conan O'Brien is 45. Bluegrass singer-musician Terry Eldredge is 45. Actor Eric McCormack is 45. Actress Maria Bello is 41. Rock musician Greg Eklund (The Oolahs) is 38. Country musician Marvin Evatt is 34. Rhythm-and-blues singer Trina (Trina and Tamara) is 34. Actress Melissa Joan Hart is 32. Actor Sean Maguire is 32. Actress America Ferrera is 24. Actress Alia Shawkat is 19.

Thought for Today: "It's what you learn after you know it all that counts." — Earl Weaver, baseball manager

[Edwin1961]

Today is Saturday, April 19, the 110th day of 2008. There are 256 days left in the year. The Jewish holiday of Passover begins at sunset.

Today's Highlight in History:
On April 19, 1775, the American Revolutionary War began with the battles of Lexington and Concord.

On this date:
In 1897, the first Boston Marathon was held; winner John J. McDermott ran the course in 2 hours, 55 minutes and 10 seconds.

In 1933, the United States went off the gold standard.

In 1943, during World War II, tens of thousands of Jews living in the Warsaw Ghetto began a valiant but futile battle against Nazi forces.

In 1951, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, relieved of his Far East command by President Truman, bid farewell in an address to Congress in which he quoted a line from a ballad: "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away."

In 1975, India launched its first satellite atop a Soviet rocket.

In 1982, astronauts Sally K. Ride and Guion S. Bluford Jr. became the first woman and first African-American to be tapped for U.S. space missions.

In 1989, 47 sailors were killed when a gun turret exploded aboard the USS Iowa.

In 1993, the 51-day siege at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, ended as fire destroyed the structure after federal agents began smashing their way in; dozens of people, including David Koresh, were killed.

In 1995, a truck bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. (Timothy McVeigh was later convicted of federal murder charges and executed.)

In 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany was elected pope in the first conclave of the new millennium; he took the name Benedict XVI.

Ten years ago: Wang Dan, a leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests, arrived in the United States after being freed by China. Mexican poet-philosopher Octavio Paz died at age 84.

Five years ago: Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo won a new term in an election denounced by opponents as fraudulent.

One year ago: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid offered a bleak assessment of Iraq, saying the war was "lost," triggering an angry backlash by Republicans. A jury in Selmer, Tenn., convicted Mary Winkler of voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of her preacher-husband, Matthew. (Mary Winkler spent seven months in custody, with two months served in a mental facility.) Luis Posada Carriles, suspected in a decades-old Cuban airliner bombing, was released from U.S. custody pending an immigration trial. (Posada's immigration case was later thrown out by a federal judge, but the government is appealing.)

Today's Birthdays: Actor Hugh O'Brian is 83. Actress Elinor Donahue is 71. Actor Tim Curry is 62. Pop singer Mark "Flo" Volman (The Turtles; Flo and Eddie) is 61. Former tennis player Sue Barker is 52. Recording executive Suge Knight is 43. Singer-songwriter Dar Williams is 41. Actress Ashley Judd is 40. Singer Bekka Bramlett is 40. Latin pop singer Luis Miguel is 38. Actor James Franco is 30. Actress Kate Hudson is 29. Actor Hayden Christensen is 27. Actress Catalina Sandino Moreno is 27. Actor Courtland Mead is 21. Tennis player Maria Sharapova is 21.

Thought for Today: "The crisis you have to worry about most is the one you don't see coming." — Mike Mansfield, American statesman (1903-2001)

[Edwin1961]

Today is Sunday, April 20, the 111th day of 2008. There are 255 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:
On April 20, 1999, the Columbine High School massacre took place in Littleton, Colo., as two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, shot and killed 12 classmates and one teacher before taking their own lives.

On this date:
In 1808, Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, was born in Paris.

In 1812, George Clinton, the fourth vice president of the United States, died in Washington at age 72, becoming the first vice president to die while in office.

In 1836, Congress voted to establish the Wisconsin Territory.

In 1889, Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria.

In 1945, during World War II, allied forces took control of the German cities of Nuremberg and Stuttgart.

In 1968, Pierre Elliott Trudeau was sworn in as prime minister of Canada.

In 1971, the Supreme Court, in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, unanimously upheld the use of busing to achieve racial desegregation in schools.

In 1972, the manned lunar module from Apollo 16 landed on the moon.

In 1978, a Korean Air Lines Boeing 707 crash-landed in northwestern Russia after being fired on by a Soviet interceptor after entering Soviet airspace. Two passengers were killed.

In 1988, gunmen who had hijacked a Kuwait Airways jumbo jet were allowed safe passage out of Algeria under an agreement that freed the remaining 31 hostages and ended a 15-day siege in which two passengers were slain.

Ten years ago: In an unusual use of a racketeering law designed to fight the mob, a federal jury in Chicago ruled that anti-abortion protest organizers had used threats and violence to shut down clinics. (However, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in February 2003 that federal racketeering and extortion laws were wrongly used to try to stop blockades, harassment and violent protests outside clinics.) A Boeing 727 leased to Air France crashed in Bogota, Colombia, killing all 53 people aboard.

Five years ago: U.S. Army forces took control of Baghdad from the Marines in a changing of the guard that thinned the military presence in the capital. Celebrating Easter, the Rev. Emmanuel Delly, a longtime Iraqi bishop, pleaded for safeguards against the persecution of Christians in the new Iraq. A landslide in southern Kyrgyzstan killed 38 people.

One year ago: The family of Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho, who shot and killed 32 people and himself, told The Associated Press they felt "hopeless, helpless and lost," and "never could have envisioned that he was capable of so much violence." A disgruntled contractor, William Phillips, shot and killed engineer David Beverly at the Johnson Space Center in Houston before barricading himself with a hostage and then killing himself.

Today's Birthdays: Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is 88. Actress Nina Foch is 84. Actor Leslie Phillips is 84. Actor George Takei is 71. Singer Johnny Tillotson is 69. Actor Ryan O'Neal is 67. Bluegrass singer-musician Doyle Lawson (Quicksilver) is 64. Rock musician Craig Frost (Grand Funk; Bob Seger's Silver Bullet Band) is 60. Actor Gregory Itzin is 60. Actress Jessica Lange is 59. Actor Clint Howard is 49. Actor Crispin Glover is 44. Country singer Wade Hayes is 39. Actor Shemar Moore is 38. Rock musician Mikey Welsh is 37. Actress Carmen Electra is 36. Reggae singer Stephen Marley is 36. Rock musician Marty Crandall (The Shins) is 33. Actor Joey Lawrence is 32.

Thought for Today: "The law that will work is merely the summing up in legislative form of the moral judgment that the community has already reached." — Woodrow Wilson, American president (1856-1924)

[Edwin1961]

Today is Monday, April 21, the 112th day of 2008. There are 254 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:
On April 21, 1918, Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the German ace known as the "Red Baron," was killed in action during World War I.

On this date:
In 1649, the Maryland Toleration Act, which provided for freedom of worship for all Christians, was passed by the Maryland assembly.

In 1789, John Adams was sworn in as the first vice president of the United States.

In 1816, Charlotte Bronte, author of "Jane Eyre," was born in Thornton, England.

In 1836, an army of Texans led by Sam Houston defeated the Mexicans at San Jacinto, assuring Texas independence.

In 1910, author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, died in Redding, Conn., at age 74.

In 1940, the quiz show that asked the "$64 question," "Take It or Leave It," premiered on CBS Radio.

In 1960, Brazil inaugurated its new capital, Brasilia, transferring the seat of national government from Rio de Janeiro.

In 1972, Apollo 16 astronauts John Young and Charles Duke explored the surface of the moon.

In 1975, South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu resigned after 10 years in office.

In 1977, the musical play "Annie," based on the "Little Orphan Annie" comic strip, opened on Broadway.

Ten years ago: Astronomers announced in Washington they had discovered possible signs of a new family of planets orbiting a star 220 light-years away, the clearest evidence to date of worlds forming beyond our solar system.

Five years ago: Military officials in Iraq announced the arrest of Muhammad Hamza al-Zubaydi, a key figure in the bloody suppression of the Shiite Muslim uprising of 1991. State-run media in China reported the government had dismissed Beijing's mayor following the disclosure of a steep increase in SARS cases in the Chinese capital. Scott Peterson pleaded innocent in the deaths of his pregnant wife and unborn son. Robert Cheruiyot became the 12th Kenyan in 13 years to win the Boston Marathon; Svetlana Zakharova of Russia won the women's race. Jazz singer Nina Simone died in France at age 70.

One year ago: The Fallujah, Iraq, city council chairman, Sami Abdul-Amir al-Jumaili, a critic of al-Qaida who had taken the job after his three predecessors were assassinated, was himself killed by attackers in a passing car. American billionaire Charles Simonyi returned to Earth from a dream voyage to the international space station, riding a Russian capsule to a soft landing in Kazakhstan. Professional sailor Reid Stowe and his girlfriend, Soanya Ahmad, set off from from North Hoboken, N.J., on a 1,000-day, nonstop globe-girdling cruise. (Ahmad abandoned the cruise in February 2008, citing seasickness.)

Today's Birthdays: Ice skater Werner Groebli ("Mr. Frick") is 93. Britain's Queen Elizabeth II is 82. Actress-comedian-writer Elaine May is 76. Actor Charles Grodin is 73. Singer-musician Iggy Pop is 61. Singer-songwriter Paul Davis is 60. Actress Patti LuPone is 59. Actor Tony Danza is 57. Actress Andie MacDowell is 50. Rock singer Robert Smith (The Cure) is 49. Rock musician Michael Timmins (Cowboy Junkies) is 49. Actor John Cameron Mitchell is 45. Rapper Michael Franti (Spearhead) is 42. Rock singer-musician Glen Hansard (The Frames) is 38. Comedian Nicole Sullivan is 38. Actor James McAvoy is 29.

Thought for Today: "Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first." — Mark Twain (1835-1910)

[Edwin1961]

Today is Tuesday, April 22, the 113th day of 2008. There are 253 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:
On April 22, 1889, the Oklahoma Land Rush began at noon as thousands of homesteaders staked claims.

On this date:
In 1509, Henry VIII became king of England following the death of his father, Henry the VII.

In 1864, Congress authorized the use of the phrase "In God We Trust" on coins.

In 1938, 45 workers were killed in a coal mine explosion at Keen Mountain in Buchanan County, Va.

In 1944, during World War II, U.S. forces began invading Japanese-held New Guinea with amphibious landings at Hollandia and Aitape.

In 1954, the publicly televised sessions of the Senate Army-McCarthy hearings began.

In 1964, President Johnson opened the New York World's Fair.

In 1970, millions of Americans concerned about the environment observed the first "Earth Day."

In 1983, the West German news magazine Stern announced the discovery of 60 volumes of personal diaries purportedly written by Adolf Hitler. However, the diaries turned out to be a hoax.

In 1994, Richard M. Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, died at a New York hospital four days after suffering a stroke; he was 81.

In 2000, in a dramatic pre-dawn raid, armed immigration agents seized Elian Gonzalez from his relatives' home in Miami; Elian was reunited with his father at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington.

Ten years ago: A young woman charged along with her high school sweetheart with murdering their newborn at a Delaware motel pleaded guilty to manslaughter. (Amy Grossberg ended up serving nearly two years of a 2 1/2-year sentence; Brian Peterson served 1 1/2 years of a two-year sentence.)

Five years ago: President Bush announced he would nominate Alan Greenspan for a fifth term as Federal Reserve chairman. Songwriter Felice Bryant, who, with her late husband, Boudleaux, wrote "Bye Bye Love" and other Everly Brothers hits, died in Gatlinburg, Tenn., at age 77.

One year ago: In the first round of the French presidential election, conservative Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist rival Segolene Royal received enough votes to advance to a runoff, which Sarkozy won.

Today's Birthdays: Actor George Cole is 83. Actress Charlotte Rae is 82. Actress Estelle Harris is 76. Country singer Glen Campbell is 72. Actor Jack Nicholson is 71. Singer Mel Carter is 65. Country singer Cleve Francis is 63. Movie director John Waters is 62. Singer Peter Frampton is 58. Rock singer-musician Paul Carrack (Mike and the Mechanics; Squeeze) is 57. Actor Joseph Bottoms is 54. Actor Ryan Stiles is 49. Comedian Byron Allen is 47. Actor Chris Makepeace is 44. Rock musician Fletcher Dragge is 42. Actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan is 42. Actress Sheryl Lee is 41. Actress-talk show host Sherri Shepherd is 41. Country singer-musician Heath Wright (Ricochet) is 41. Country singer Kellie Coffey is 37. Actor Eric Mabius is 37. Actor Ingo Rademacher is 37. Rock musician Shavo Odadjian (System of a Down) is 34. Rock singer-musician Daniel Johns (Silverchair) is 29. Actress Michelle Ryan is 24. Actress Amber Heard is 22.

Thought for Today: "Always remember others may hate you but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself." — Richard M. Nixon, 37th president of the United States (1913-1994)

[Edwin1961]

Today is Wednesday, April 23, the 114th day of 2008. There are 252 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:
April 23, 1564, is believed to be the birthdate of English poet and dramatist William Shakespeare; he died 52 years later, also on April 23.

On this date:
In 1789, President-elect George Washington moved into the first executive mansion, the Franklin House, in New York.

In 1791, James Buchanan, the 15th president of the United States, was born in Franklin County, Pa.

In 1896, the Vitascope system for projecting movies onto a screen was publicly demonstrated in New York City.

In 1940, about 200 people died in the Rhythm Night Club Fire in Natchez, Miss.

In 1958, the film noir thriller "Touch of Evil," starring Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh and Orson Welles, who also directed, was released.

In 1968, student protesters began occupying buildings on the campus of Columbia University in New York; police put down the protests a week later.

In 1968, the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church merged to form the United Methodist Church.

In 1969, Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death for assassinating New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. (The sentence was later reduced to life imprisonment.)

In 1985, the Coca-Cola Company announced it was changing the secret flavor formula for Coke. (Negative public reaction forced the company to resume selling the original version).

In 1988, a federal ban on smoking during domestic airline flights of two hours or less went into effect.

Ten years ago: James Earl Ray, the ex-convict who'd confessed to assassinating the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 and then insisted he'd been framed, died at a Nashville, Tenn., hospital at age 70.

Five years ago: Global health officials warned travelers to avoid Beijing and Toronto, where they might get the SARS virus and export it to new locations. U.S. negotiators met with North Korean and Chinese representatives in Beijing for the first three-way meeting by the governments since the Korean War. American Airlines reported a billion-dollar first-quarter loss.

One year ago: Boris Yeltsin, the first freely elected Russian president, died in Moscow at age 76. Congressional Democratic leaders agreed on legislation requiring the first U.S. combat troops to be withdrawn from Iraq by Oct. 1, 2007, with a goal of a complete pullout six months later; President Bush pledged to veto such a measure. Classes at Virginia Tech resumed a week after the killings of 32 victims by a suicidal gunman. Journalist and author David Halberstam died in a car crash in Menlo Park, Calif., at age 73.

Today's Birthdays: Actress-turned-diplomat Shirley Temple Black is 80. Actor Alan Oppenheimer is 78. Actor David Birney is 69. Actor Lee Majors is 69. Irish nationalist Bernadette Devlin McAliskey is 61. Actress Blair Brown is 60. Writer-director Paul Brickman is 59. Actress Joyce DeWitt is 59. Actor James Russo is 55. Filmmaker-author Michael Moore is 54. Actress Judy Davis is 53. Actress Jan Hooks is 51. Actress Valerie Bertinelli is 48. Actor Craig Sheffer is 48. Actor George Lopez is 47. Rock musician Gen is 44. U.S. Olympic gold medal skier Donna Weinbrecht is 43. Actress Melina Kanakaredes is 41. Rock musician Stan Frazier (Sugar Ray) is 40. Country musician Tim Womack (Sons of the Desert) is 40. Actor Scott Bairstow is 38. Actor Barry Watson is 34. Actor Kal Penn is 31. Actress Jaime King is 29. Actor Aaron Hill is 25. Actress Rachel Skarsten is 23. Actor Matthew Underwood is 18. Actor Camryn Walling is 18.

Thought for Today: "...We are such stuff/ As dreams are made on, and our little life/ Is rounded with a sleep." — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), from "The Tempest."

[Edwin1961]

Today is Thursday, April 24, the 115th day of 2008. There are 251 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:
On April 24, 1916, some 1,600 Irish nationalists launched the Easter Rising by seizing several key sites in Dublin, Ireland. (The rising was put down by British forces almost a week later.)

On this date:
In 1792, the national anthem of France, "La Marseillaise," was composed by Captain Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.

In 1800, Congress approved a bill establishing the Library of Congress.

In 1877, federal troops were ordered out of New Orleans, ending the North's post-Civil War rule in the South.

In 1898, Spain declared war on the United States after rejecting America's ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba.

In 1915, the Ottoman Empire began the brutal mass deportation of Armenians during World War I.

In 1953, British statesman Winston Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth ll.

In 1970, the People's Republic of China launched its first satellite, which kept transmitting a song, "The East is Red."

In 1980, the United States launched an unsuccessful attempt to free the American hostages in Iran, a mission that resulted in the deaths of eight U.S. servicemen.

In 1986, Wallis, the Duchess of Windsor, for whom King Edward VIII had given up the British throne, died in Paris.

In 1988, Greek cycling champion Kanellos Kanellopoulos pedaled the human-powered aircraft "Daedalus 88" over the Aegean Sea for nearly four hours.

Ten years ago: After a month of confrontation, Russian lawmakers caved in to President Boris Yeltsin, approving the acting prime minister, 35-year-old Sergei Kiriyenko, as premier. (Kiriyenko was fired just four months later.) In Edinboro, Pa., science teacher John Gillette was shot to death at a middle school graduation dance; the gunman, 14-year-old Andrew Wurst, later pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison.

Five years ago: U.S. forces in Iraq took custody of Tariq Aziz, the former Iraqi deputy prime minister. China shut down a Beijing hospital as the global death toll from SARS surpassed 260. In Red Lion, Pa., 14-year-old James Sheets shot and killed principal Eugene Segro inside a crowded junior high cafeteria, then killed himself.

One year ago: In a harsh exchange, Vice President **** Cheney accused Democratic leader Harry Reid of personally pursuing a defeatist strategy in Iraq to win votes at home — a charge Reid dismissed as President Bush's "attack dog" lashing out. European astronomers announced they had found a potentially habitable planet outside the solar system. Warren Avis, the founder of Avis Rent A Car, died in Ann Arbor, Mich., at age 92.

Today's Birthdays: Film and drama critic Stanley Kauffmann is 92. Movie director-producer Richard Donner is 78. Actress Shirley MacLaine is 74. Author Sue Grafton is 68. Actor-singer Michael Parks is 68. Actress-singer-director Barbra Streisand is 66. Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley is 66. Country singer Richard Sterban (The Oak Ridge Boys) is 65. Rock musician Doug Clifford (Creedence Clearwater Revival) is 63. Rock singer-musician Rob Hyman is 58. Actor-playwright Eric Bogosian is 55. Actor Michael O'Keefe is 53. Rock musician David J (Bauhaus) is 51. Rock musician Billy Gould is 45. Actor-comedian Cedric the Entertainer is 44. Actor Djimon Hounsou is 44. Rock musician Patty Schemel is 41. Rock musician Aaron Comess (Spin Doctors) is 40. Actress Melinda Clarke is 39. Latin pop singer Alejandro Fernandez is 37. Country-rock musician Brad Morgan (Drive-By Truckers) is 37. Actor Derek Luke is 34. Actor Eric Balfour is 31. Country singer Rebecca Lynn Howard is 29. Actress Rebecca Mader (TV: "Lost") is 29. Singer Kelly Clarkson is 26.

Thought for Today: "I know of no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution." — Ulysses S. Grant, U.S. President (1822-1885)

[robert ambrose]

this day 25th april, nz and aus. celebrate the valour of our soldiers in the world wars, korean and vietnam wars also. lest we forget