TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS MONDAY, APRIL 23,
the 113th day of 2018. There are 252 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1968, student protesters began occupying buildings on the campus of Columbia University in New York; police put down the protests a week later.
In 1616 (Old Style calendar), English poet and dramatist William Shakespeare died in Stratford-uponAvon on what has traditionally been regarded as the 52nd anniversary of his birth in 1564.
In 1789, President-elect George Washington and his wife, Martha, moved into the first executive mansion, the Franklin House, in New York.
In 1898, Spain declared war on the United States, which responded in kind two days later.
In 1943, U.S. Navy Lt. (jg) John F. Kennedy assumed command of PT-109, a motor torpedo boat, in the Solomon Islands during World War II. On Aug. 2, 1943, PT-109 was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer, killing two crew members; Kennedy and 10 others survived.
In 1954, Hank Aaron of the Milwaukee Braves hit the first of his 755 majorleague home runs in a game against the St. Louis Cardinals.
In 1969, Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death for assassinating New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. The sentence was later reduced to life imprisonment.
In 1971, hundreds of Vietnam War veterans opposed to the conflict protested by tossing their medals and ribbons over a wire fence in front of the U.S. Capitol. In 1988, Greek cycling champion Kanellos Kanellopoulos pedaled the human-powered aircraft Daedalus over the Aegean Sea for nearly four hours.
In 1998, James Earl Ray, who confessed to assassinating the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., then insisted he’d been framed, died at a Nashville hospital at age 70.
In 2005, the recently created videosharing website YouTube uploaded its first clip, “Me at the Zoo,” which showed YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim standing in front of an elephant enclosure at the San Diego Zoo.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS:
Actor Alan Oppenheimer is 88. Actors David Birney and Lee Majors are 79. Hockey Hall-of-Famer Tony Esposito is 75. Irish nationalist Bernadette Devlin McAliskey and actress Blair Brown are 71. Writer-director Paul Brickman and actress Joyce DeWitt are 69. Actor James Russo is 65. Filmmakerauthor Michael Moore is 64. Actress Judy Davis is 63. Actress Valerie Bertinelli and actor Craig Sheffer are 58. Actor-comedian-talk show host George Lopez is 57. Actress Melina Kanakaredes is 51. Professional wrestler/actor John Cena, actor-writercomedian John Oliver, actor Kal Penn and MLB All-Star Andruw Jones are 41. Actress Jaime King is 39. Actors Dev Patel, Matthew Underwood and Camryn Walling are 28. Model Gigi Hadid is 23. Actor Charlie Rowe (TV: “Salvation”) is 22. U.S. Olympic gold medal snowboarder Chloe Kim is 18.