TODAY in HISTORY

Today is Wednesday, April 4, the 94th day of 2018. There are 271 days left in the year.

503 BC Roman consul Agrippa Menenius Lanatus celebrated a triumph for victory over the Sabines.

1460 Basel University is founded. 1581 Francis Drake knighted by Queen Elizabeth I aboard Golden Hind at Deptford.

1768 In London, Philip Astley stages the first modern circus.

1721 Sir Robert Walpole becomes first British prime minister. 1796 Georges Cuvier delivers the first paleontological lecture.

1802 Dorothea Dix, American nurse and activist was born on this day.

1812 United States President James Madison enacts a ninety- day embargo on trade with the United Kingdom.

1814 Napoleon abdicates for the first time and names his son Napoleon II as Emperor of the French.

1817 André Masséna, French general passed way this day.

1818 The United States Congress adopts the flag of the United States with 13 red and white stripes and one star for each state.

1841 William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia, becoming the first President of the United States to die in office, and setting the record for the briefest administration. Vice President John Tyler succeeds Harrison as President.

1865 American Civil War: A day after Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, U. S. President Abraham Lincoln visits the Confederate capital.

1905 In India, an earthquake hits the Kangra Valley, killing 20,000, and destroying most buildings in Kangra, McLeod Ganj and Dharamshala.

1939 Faisal II becomes King of Iraq.

1949 Cold War: Twelve nations sign the North Atlantic Treaty creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

1975 Vietnam War: A United States Air Force Lockheed C- 5A Galaxy transporting orphans, crashes near Saigon, South Vietnam shortly after takeoff, killing 172 people.

1991 The current flag of Hong Kong is adopted for post- colonial Hong Kong during the Third Session of the Seventh National People’s Congress.

1994 Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark found Netscape Communications Corporation under the name Mosaic Communications Corporation.

2009 France returns to being a member of NATO.

2012 Claude Miller, French director, producer, and screenwriter passed away on this day.

2014 Kumba Ialá, BissauGuinean soldier and politician, President of Guinea- Bissau passed away on this day.