Today In History

Today is Wednesday, April 19, the 109th day of 2017. There are 256 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

› 1967: Kathrine Switzer became the first woman to run the Boston Marathon under an official number by registering without mentioning her gender; by her own estimate, she finished in 4 hours and 20 minutes. (Bobbi Gibb, running unofficially for the second time, finished in 3:27:17.)

ON THIS DATE

› 1775: The American Revolutionary War began with the battles of Lexington and Concord.

› 1897: The first Boston Marathon was held; winner John J. McDermott ran the course in two hours, 55 minutes and 10 seconds.

› 1935: The Universal Pictures horror film “Bride of Frankenstein,” had its world premiere in San Francisco.

› 1943: During World War II, tens of thousands of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto began a valiant but ultimately futile battle against Nazi forces.

› 1977: The Supreme Court, in Ingraham v. Wright, ruled 5-4 that even severe spanking of schoolchildren by faculty members did not violate the Eighth Amendment ban against cruel and unusual punishment.

› 1995: A truck bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people.

› 2005: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany was elected pope in the first conclave of the new millennium; he took the name Benedict XVI.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Actress Elinor Donahue is 80. Rock musician Alan Price (The Animals) is 75. Actor Tim Curry is 71. Pop singer Mark “Flo” Volman (The Turtles; Flo and Eddie) is

70. Actor Tony Plana is

65. Motorsports Hall of Famer Al Unser Jr. is 55. Actor Tom Wood is 54. Recording executive Suge Knight is 52. Singer-songwriter Dar Williams is 50. Actress Ashley Judd is 49. Singer Bekka Bramlett is 49. Latin pop singer Luis Miguel is 47. Actress Jennifer Esposito is 45. Jazz singer Madeleine Peyroux is 43. Actor James Franco is 39. Actress Catalina Sandino Moreno is 36. Actress-comedian Ali Wong (TV: “American Housewife”) is 35. Actress Kelen Coleman is 33. Roots rock musician Steve Johnson (Alabama Shakes) is 32. Actor Courtland Mead is

30. Tennis player Maria Sharapova is 30.