TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SUNDAY, APRIL 22, the 112th day of 2018. There are 253 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1898, with the United States and Spain on the verge of war, the U.S. Navy began blockading Cuban ports. Congress authorized creation of the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, also known as the “Rough Riders.”
In 1864, Congress authorized the use of the phrase “In God We Trust” on U.S. coins.
In 1889, the Oklahoma Land Rush began at noon as thousands of homesteaders staked claims.
In 1938, 45 workers were killed in a coal mine explosion at Keen Mountain in Buchanan County, Va.
In 1952, an atomic test in Nevada became the first nuclear explosion shown on live network television as a 31-kiloton bomb was dropped from a B-50 Superfortress.
In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson opened the New York World’s Fair.
In 1970, millions of Americans concerned about the environment observed the first “Earth Day.”
In 1983, the West German news magazine Stern announced the discovery of 60 volumes of personal diaries purportedly written by Adolf Hitler; the diaries were a hoax.
In 1993, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum was dedicated in Washington, D.C., to honor victims of Nazi extermination.
In 1994, Richard M. Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, died at a New York hospital four days after suffering a stroke; he was 81.
In 2000, in a dramatic pre-dawn raid, 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.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actress Charlotte Rae is 92. Actress Estelle Harris is 90. Actor Jack Nicholson is
81. Singer Mel Carter is 79. Author Janet Evanovich is 75. Country singer Cleve Francis is 73. Movie director John Waters is 72. Singer Peter Frampton is 68. Rock singer-musician Paul Carrack (Mike and the Mechanics; Squeeze) is 67. Comedian Byron Allen is 57. Actor Chris Makepeace is
54. Rock musician Fletcher Dragge and actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan are
52. Country singer Kellie Coffey, and actors Eric Mabius and Ingo Rademacher are 47. Rock musician Shavo Odadjian (System of a Down) is
44. Rock singer-musician Daniel Johns (Silverchair) is 39. Actress Cassidy Freeman is 36. Actress Michelle Ryan is 34. Actress Amber Heard is 32. Singer-songwriter BC Jean (Alexander Jean) is 31.