Today's Highlight in History:
On April 11, 1970, Apollo 13, with astronauts James A. Lovell, Fred W. Haise and Jack Swigert, blasted off on its ill-fated mission to the moon. (Although the spacecraft was crippled when an oxygen tank ruptured in mid-flight, the crew managed to return safely.)
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 William McKinley asked Congress to authorize military intervention in Cuba.
In 1899, the treaty ending the Spanish-American War was declared in effect.
In 1921, Iowa became the first state to impose a cigarette tax, at 2 cents a package.
In 1945, American soldiers liberated the notorious Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald in Germany.
In 1951, President Harry S. Truman relieved General Douglas MacArthur of his commands in the Far East.
In 1968, one week after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., U.S. President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
In 1979, Idi Amin was deposed as president of Uganda as rebels and exiles backed by Tanzanian forces seized control. Sound Bite: AP correspondent Serge Schmemann
In 1980, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued regulations specifically prohibiting sexual harassment of workers by supervisors.
In 1983, Harold Washington was elected the first black mayor of Chicago.
In 1987, South Africa, extending a 9-month-old state of emergency, barred all protests on behalf of political detainees.
In 1988, the hijackers of a Kuwait Airways jetliner killed a second hostage, dumping his body onto the ground in Larnaca, Cyprus.
In 1989, Mexican officials began unearthing the remains of victims of a drug-trafficking cult near Matamoros; one of the dead was University of Texas student Mark Kilroy, who had disappeared while on spring break. (Several cult members were later convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to 50 years in prison.)
In 1993, nine inmates and one guard were killed when an 11-day riot erupted at the maximum-security Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville.
In 1996, Israel retaliated for bomb attacks by shelling Hezbollah positions in Lebanon. A U.N. refugee camp was struck, killing more than 100 civilians. Also in 1996, 7-year-old pilot Jessica Dubroff, her father and her flight instructor were killed when their plane crashed on takeoff from Cheyenne, Wyo.
In 1999, the Justice Department reported that more than a third of the women in state prisons and jails said they were physically or sexually abused as children. Jose Maria Olazabal won the Masters by two shots over Davis Love III.
In 2000, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak met with President Bill Clinton at the White House in what a senior U.S. official described as a good, productive, serious discussion. A British judge branded historian David Irving an anti-Semite racist and an apologist for Adolf Hitler, ruling that an American scholar was justified in calling him a Holocaust denier.
In 2001, ending a tense 11-day standoff, China agreed to free the 24 crew members of an American spy plane.
In 2002, U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr., D-Ohio, was convicted of taking bribes and kickbacks from businessmen and his own staff.
In 2003, American troops took the northern Iraqi city of Mosul without a fight.
In 2004, President George W. Bush defended his response to a briefing memo from August 2001 about possible terrorist plots against the United States, saying he was "satisfied that some of the matters were being looked into" and that there were no specific threats against New York and Washington. Pope John Paul II celebrated Easter Mass with calls for world leaders to resolve conflicts in Iraq, the Holy Land and Africa. Phil Mickelson's agonizing pursuit of a major ended at the Masters when he made an 18-foot birdie putt on the final hole.
In 2005, during a meeting at his Texas ranch, President George W. Bush told Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon he could not allow further West Bank settlement growth and said Israeli and Palestinian doubts about each other were hampering peace prospects. Jeffrey Ake, a 47-year-old contract worker from LaPorte, Ind., was abducted in Iraq. (His fate remains unknown.) Miss North Carolina Chelsea Cooley was crowned Miss USA at the pageant in Baltimore.
In 2006, Iran announced that it had enriched uranium on a small scale for the first time. Israel's Cabinet declared Prime Minister Ariel Sharon permanently incapacitated. Also in 2006, more than 1 million U.S. immigrants and their supporters in some 150 cities across the nation rallied peacefully against a congressional clampdown and possible deportations. And, the leader of the Sicilian Mafia, Bernardo Provenzano, was arrested near Palermo, Italy, after eluding capture for 43 years.
In 2007, charges were dropped against three former Duke University lacrosse players who were falsely accused of rape. Author Kurt Vonnegut died at age 84.
In 2008, Group of Seven financial officials meeting in Washington pledged to strengthen their regulation of banks and other financial institutions while anxiously hoping the credit crisis in the United States would be a short one. French troops captured six pirates after the pirates released 30 hostages who were aboard the French luxury yacht Le Ponant when it was seized off Somalia's coast. Examination of Iran's most recent missile launch indicated the nation is developing both long-range missile technology and a space center, Jane's Information Group said.
In 2009, a 16-nation Asian summit in Bangkok, Thailand was canceled after demonstrators stormed the venue. Another demonstration by the same group a few days later in Bangkok led to violent clashes with the military. Boston University won its fifth NCAA hockey championship, defeating Miami (Ohio) 4-3 in overtime.
Today's Birthdays: Former New York Gov. Hugh Carey is 91. Ethel Kennedy is 82. Actor Johnny Sheffield is 79. Actor Joel Grey is 78. Actress Louise Lasser is 71. Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Ellen Goodman is 69. Movie writer-director John Milius is 66. Actor Peter Riegert is 63. Actor Meshach Taylor is 63. Movie director Carl Franklin is 61. Actor Bill Irwin is 60. Country singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale is 53. Songwriter-producer Daryl Simmons is 53. Rock musician Nigel Pulsford is 49. Actor Lucky Vanous is 49. Country singer Steve Azar is 46. Singer Lisa Stansfield is 44. Rock musician Dylan Keefe (Marcy Playground) is 40. Actor Johnny Messner is 40. Actor Vicellous Shannon is 39. Rapper David Banner is 36. Actress Tricia Helfer is 36. Rock musician Chris Gaylor (The All-American Rejects) is 31. Actress Kelli Garner is 26. Singer Joss Stone is 23.
Even The Dead Have Birthdays, Today's Including: American statesman and orator Edward Everett (1794); baseball Hall of Fame member Cap Anson (1852); U.S. Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes (1862); statesman Dean Acheson, secretary of state under President Harry Truman (1893) & fashion designer Oleg Cassini (1913).
11 April In Entertainment
In 1958, Jerry Lee Lewis' first wife, Jane Mitcham, filed for divorce. Lewis had already secretly married his 13-year-old cousin, Myra Gale Brown. [Better late than never. — Ed.]
In 1961, Bob Dylan made his first professional appearance at a club in New York's Greenwich Village.
In 1965, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones shared the bill at the "New Musical Express" poll winners' contest in London.
In 1970, Paul McCartney announced what he called a temporary break from The Beatles. Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac announced he was leaving the band to follow his religious beliefs.
In 1981, guitarist Eddie Van Halen and actress Valerie Bertinelli got married. They separated in 2002 and divorced in 2007.
In 1983, "Gandhi" was the big winner at the Academy Awards, taking best picture and director. "Up Where We Belong" from the movie "An Officer and a Gentleman" won the best song award.
In 1988, "The Last Emperor" was named best picture at the Academy Awards. Cher won a best actress award for "Moonstruck."
Thought for Today: "I'd rather be strongly wrong than weakly right." — Tallulah Bankhead, American actress (1903-1968).
The UPI Thought For The Day: It was Jerry Seinfeld who said, "A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking." [What about libraries, Philistine? — Ed.]
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