TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, 2018

On this day in history:

0896 - Formosus ended his reign as pope.

1541 - Ignatius of Loyola became the first superior-general of the Jesuits. 1581 - Francis Drake was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I. A few months earlier he became the first Englishman to circumnavigate the world. 1687 - King James II ordered that his declaration of indulgence be read in church. 1820 - The foundation stone is laid for what later becomes the magnificent Queen Victoria Building in Sydney.

1846 - The first payable gold discovery in South Australia, gives rise to the first Australian gold mine, five years before the official discovery of gold in Australia at Bathurst.

1848 - Leichhardt departs Roma, Queensland, on his third and final expedition, never to be seen again.

1902 - British Financier Cecil Rhodes left $10 million in his will that would provide scholarships for Americans to Oxford University in England. 1905 - In Kangra, India, an earthquake killed 370,000 people.

1918 - The Battle of Somme, an offensive by the British against the German Army ended. 1929 - The only dam-burst in Australia’s history to cause loss of life occurs in Tasmania. 1945 - Hungary was liberated from Nazi occupation. 1945 - During World War II, US forces liberated the Nazi death camp Ohrdruf in Germany. 1949 - Twelve nations signed a treaty to create The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

1953 - Fifteen doctors were released by Soviet leaders. The doctors had been arrested before Stalin had died and were accused of plotting against him.

1968 - Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at the age of 39.

1973 - In New York, the original World Trade Center twin towers opened. At the time they were the tallest building in the world.

1985 - In Sudan, a coup ousted President Nimeiry and replaced him with General Dahab. 1992 - Sali Berisha became the first non-Marxist president of Albania since World War II.