Today in History
Today is the 112th day of 2019. There are 253 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On April 22, 2000, armed immigration agents seized Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy at the center of a custody dispute, from his relatives’ home in Miami; Elian was reunited with his father at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington.
On this date:
In 1864, Congress authorized the use of the phrase “In God We Trust” on U.S. coins.
In 1898, with the United States and Spain on the verge of war, the U.S. Navy began blockading Cuban ports. Congress authorized the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, known as the “Rough Riders.”
In 1915, the first full-scale use of deadly chemicals in warfare took place as German forces unleashed chlorine gas against Allied troops in Belgium during World War I; thousands of soldiers are believed to have died.
In 1952, an atomic test in Nevada became the first nuclear explosion shown on live network television as a 31-kiloton bomb was dropped.
In 1954, the publicly televised sessions of the Senate Army-McCarthy hearings began.
In 1970, millions of Americans concerned about the environment observed the first “Earth Day.”
In 1993, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum was dedicated in Washington, D.C.
In 1994, Richard M. Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, died at a New York hospital after suffering a stroke; he was 81.
In 2004, Army Ranger Pat Tillman, who’d traded in a multi-million-dollar NFL contract to serve in Afghanistan, was killed by friendly fire; he was 27.
In 2005, Zacarias Moussaoui pleaded guilty in Washington, D.C. to conspiring with the Sept. 11 hijackers to kill Americans.
In 2013, a seriously wounded Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was charged in his hospital room with bombing the Boston Marathon in a plot with his older brother, Tamerlan, who died after a fierce gunbattle with police.
Ten years ago: The FDA said 17-year-old girls could get “morning after” birth control without a prescription. British-born movie director Ken Annakin (“Swiss Family Robinson”) died in Beverly Hills, Calif., at age 94.
One year ago: A nearly naked Travis Reinking carrying an assault rifle stormed a Waffle House restaurant in Nashville, Tenn., shooting four people to death before a customer rushed him and wrestled the weapon away.
Today’s Birthdays: Actress Estelle Harris is 91. Actor Jack Nicholson is 82. Singer Mel Carter is 80. Author Janet Evanovich is 76. Country singer Cleve Francis is 74. Singer Peter Frampton is 69. Rock singer-musician Paul Carrack (Mike and the Mechanics; Squeeze) is 68. Actor Joseph Bottoms is 65. Actor Ryan Stiles is 60. Actor Chris Makepeace is 55. Actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan is 53. Actress Sheryl Lee is 52. Actress-talk show host Sherri Shepherd is 52. Country singer Kellie Coffey is 48. Actor Eric Mabius is 48. Actor Malcolm Barrett is 39. Actress Cassidy Freeman is 37.
Thought for Today: “What’s vice today may be virtue, tomorrow.” — Henry Fielding, English novelist (born this date in 1707, died in 1754).
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