Today is Easter Sunday, April 4, the 94th day of 2010. There are 271 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., 39, was shot to death at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. (James Earl Ray later pleaded guilty to assassinating King, then spent the rest of his life claiming his innocence before dying in prison in 1998.)
On this date:
In 1818, Congress decided the flag of the United States would consist of 13 red and white stripes and 20 stars, with a new star to be added for every new state of the Union.
In 1841, President William Henry Harrison succumbed to pneumonia one month after his inaugural, becoming the first U.S. chief executive to die in office.
In 1850, the city of Los Angeles was incorporated.
In 1859, “Dixie” was performed publicly for the first time by Bryant’s Minstrels at Mechanics’ Hall in New York. (The song is popularly attributed to Daniel Decatur Emmett, although his authorship has been called into question.)
In 1887, Susanna Medora Salter was elected as the first woman mayor in the United States, serving for one year as head of the municipal government of Argonia, Kan.
In 1896, the Yukon gold rush began with the announcement of a strike in the Northwest Territory of Canada.
In 1945, U.S. troops on Okinawa encountered the first significant resistance from Japanese forces at the Machinato Line.
In 1949, 12 nations, including the United States, signed the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington, D.C.
In 1975, more than 130 people, most of them children, were killed when a U.S. Air Force transport plane evacuating Vietnamese orphans crash-landed shortly after take-off from Saigon. Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen.
In 1979, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the deposed prime minister of Pakistan, was hanged after he was convicted of conspiring to murder a political opponent.
In 1983, the space shuttle Challenger roared into orbit on its maiden voyage.
In 1991, U.S. Sen. John Heinz, R-Pa., and four others were killed when their chartered airplane collided with a helicopter near Philadelphia.
In 1992, Sam Moore Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, died of cancer at 74. His retail store chain helped make him one of the world's richest men.
In 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin ended a two-day summit in Canada, with a larger than expected U.S. aid pledge of $1.62 billion.
In 1999, NATO warplanes and missiles attacked an army headquarters, oil refineries and other targets in and around Belgrade, Yugoslavia. The Colorado Rockies beat the San Diego Padres 8-2 in baseball's first season opener held in Mexico.
In 2000, in a volatile day on the U.S. stock market, the Nasdaq composite index and the Dow Jones industrial average each plunged more than 500 points before reversing course as buyers flooded back into the market.
In 2001, former Philippine President Joseph Estrada, ousted in January during a popular uprising, was indicted for allegedly taking millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks.
In 2002, as Israel stepped up its attacks on Palestinians on the West Bank, U.S. President George W. Bush demanded Israelis stop and pull back.
In 2003, coalition forces encircled Baghdad and secured Saddam International Airport in overnight fighting.
In 2004, three explosions killed five people and hurt at least 100 others at a residential housing compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr, an anti-American cleric, rioted in four Iraqi cities, killing dozens of Iraqis, eight U.S. troops and a Salvadoran soldier.
In 2005, tens of thousands of pilgrims paid their final respects to Pope John Paul II after his body was carried on a crimson platform to St. Peter’s Basilica. The Supreme Court ruled creditors could not seize the Individual Retirement Accounts of bankrupt people. The Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal captured two Pulitzer Prizes apiece; Marilynne Robinson received the fiction award for her novel “Gilead,” while John Patrick Shanley received the drama Pulitzer for “Doubt.” Kyrgyzstan President Askar Akayev, who’d fled the country from an uprising, signed a resignation agreement. Coaches Jim Boeheim and Jim Calhoun were elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.
In 2006, an Iraqi tribunal announced that former leader Saddam Hussein will face additional genocide charges for gassing Kurds in the 1980s. Also in 2006, prosecutors said there was no sign of foul play in the death of Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic who suffered a fatal heart attack March 11 while on trial at The Hague for war crimes.
In 2007, radio talk show host Don Imus was fired for making what was termed a sexually and racially offensive remark about the predominantly black Rutgers University women's basketball team.
In 2008, police raided a West Texas polygamist ranch owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and removed 400 minors after reports of sexual abuse of children. Lisa Montgomery was sentenced to death in Kansas City, Mo., for killing Bobbie Jo Stinnett, a mother-to-be, and cutting the baby from her womb. Pirates seized the French luxury yacht Le Ponant and its 30 crew members off the coast of Somalia. (The crew was released a week later; six alleged pirates ended up being captured.) Also in 2008, Chinese paramilitary police killed eight people after opening fire on several hundred protesting Tibetan monks and villagers at a monastery in the Sichuan province.
In 2009, a gunman killed three Pittsburgh police officers responding to a domestic disturbance call; suspect Richard Poplawski is awaiting trial. Police in Washington state found the body of James Harrison, who’d apparently shot to death five of his children, ages 7 to 16, at their mobile home in Graham. NATO leaders appointed Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the alliance’s new secretary-general during a two-day, 60th-anniversary summit in Strasbourg, France. North Korea launched a long-range test missile despite warnings from the United States, the United Nations and others. North officials said they sought to determine how to put a satellite into space. Also in 2009, rescuers searched for bodies of drowning victims after a fishing boat jammed with a reported 257 illegal immigrants sank 19 miles off the Libyan coast.
Today’s Birthdays: Actress Elizabeth Wilson is 89. Author-poet Maya Angelou is 82. Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) is 78. Recording executive Clive Davis is 78. Bandleader Hugh Masekela is 71. Author Kitty Kelley is 68. Actor Craig T. Nelson is 66. Actor Walter Charles is 65. Actress Caroline McWilliams is 65. Actress Christine Lahti is 60. Country singer Steve Gatlin (The Gatlin Brothers) is 59. Writer-producer David E. Kelley is 54. Actor Phil Morris is 51. Actress Lorraine Toussaint is 50. Actor Hugo Weaving is 50. Rock musician Craig Adams (The Cult) is 48. Actor David Cross is 46. Actor Robert Downey Jr. is 45. Actress Nancy McKeon is 44. Actor Barry Pepper is 40. Country singer Clay Davidson is 39. Rock singer Josh Todd (Buckcherry) is 39. Singer Jill Scott is 38. Rock musician Magnus Sveningsson (The Cardigans) is 38. Magician David Blaine is 37. Singer Kelly Price is 37. Rhythm-and-blues singer Andre Dalyrimple (Soul For Real) is 36. Actor James Roday is 34. Actress Natasha Lyonne is 31. Actress Amanda Righetti is 27. Actress Jamie Lynn Spears is 19.
Easter Babies Who Have Not (As Yet) Been Resurrected: Social reformer Dorothea Dix (1802); inventor Linus Yale, developer of the cylinder lock (1821); dance school founder Arthur Murray (1895); baseball Hall of Famer Tris Speaker (1888); author/playwright Robert E. Sherwood (1896); broadcast news commentator John Cameron Swayze (1906); blues musician Muddy Waters, born McKinley Morganfield (1915); actor Anthony Perkins (1932); & baseball commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti (1938).
4 April in Entertainment History
In 1960, "Ben Hur" won the best picture and best director Academy Awards. The film's star, Charlton Heston, was named best actor. Elvis Presley recorded “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” in Nashville for RCA Victor.
In 1963, The Hollies auditioned for EMI Records at Abbey Road studios.
In 1964, The Beatles held the top five positions on Billboard's Hot 100. "Can't Buy Me Love" was number one, followed by "Twist and Shout," "She Loves You," "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and "Please Please Me."
In 1977, The Clash's first album, "The Clash," was released in Britain. It wasn't released in the US until 1979, because some of the songs' content was judged to be too violent for American ears. [Doesn't that kind of crap just make you want to beat the living shit out of someone? — Ed.]
In 1983, actress Gloria Swanson died in New York. She was 84.
In 1996, Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia's widow, Deborah, scattered part of Garcia's ashes in the Ganges River in India. He had died the previous August. [Stupid, awful hippies! — Ed.]
In 2000, Diana Ross announced a Supremes "reunion" tour, even though the other two Supremes, Scherrie Payne and Lynda Laurence, had never performed with Ross. The tour was later canceled due to poor ticket sales. [The free market works!! — Ed.]
In 2002, guitarist Aaron Kamin of The Calling suffered a severe electric shock during a sound check in Bangkok, Thailand. The band had to call off the rest of their international tour.
In 2004, musician Beck married actress-screenwriter Marissa Ribisi.
Thought for Today: “The only sure thing about luck is that it will change.” — Bret Harte, American author and journalist (1836-1902).
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