TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is
Saturday, April 23.
Today’s Highlight:
On April 23, 2005, the recently created video-sharing 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.
On this date:
In 1616 (Old Style calendar), English poet and dramatist William Shakespeare died in Stratford-upon-Avon on what has traditionally been regarded as the 52nd anniversary of his birth in 1564.
In 1898, Spain declared war on the United States, which responded in kind two days later.
In 1954, Hank Aaron of the Milwaukee Braves hit the first of his 755 major-league home runs in a game against the St. Louis Cardinals. (The Braves won, 7-5.)
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, a federal ban on smoking during domestic airline flights of two hours or less went into effect.
In 1992, McDonald’s opened its first fast-food restaurant in the Chinese capital of Beijing.
In 1993, labor leader Cesar Chavez died in San Luis, Arizona,
at age 66.
In 1998, James Earl Ray, who confessed to assassinating the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and then insisted he’d been framed, died at a Nashville, Tennessee, hospital at age 70.
In 2007, Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s first freely elected president, died in Moscow at age 76.
In 2020, at a White House briefing, President Donald Trump noted that researchers were looking at the effects of disinfectants on the coronavirus, and wondered aloud whether they could be injected into people.
Ten years ago: Actorsinger Jennifer Hudson broke down in tears while testifying at the Chicago trial of William Balfour, the man accused of killing her mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew in a jealous rage in 2008. (Balfour was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.) The government reported that Social Security was rushing even faster toward insolvency, with its trust funds expected to run dry in 2033, three years earlier than previously projected.
Five years ago: Centrist Emmanuel Macron and farright populist Marine Le Pen advanced to a May runoff in France’s presidential election (Macron ended up defeating Le Pen).
One year ago: U.S. health officials lifted an 11-day pause on COVID-19 vaccinations using Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose shot, after scientific advisers decided its benefits outweighed a rare risk of blood clot.