TODAY IN WORLD HISTORY

Today is Saturday, April 8, the 98th day of 2017. There are 267 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History On April 8, 1952, President Harry S. Truman seized the American steel industry to avert a nationwide strike. (The Supreme Court later ruled that Truman had overstepped his authority, opening the way for a seven-week strike by steelworkers.)

On this date • In 1864, the United States Senate passed, 38-6, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolishing slavery. (The House of Representatives passed it in Jan. 1865; the amendment was ratified and adopted in Dec. 1865.)

• In 1913, the 17th Amendment to the Constitution, providing for popular election of U.S. senators (as opposed to appointment by state legislatures), was ratified. President Woodrow Wilson became the first chief executive since John Adams to address Congress in person as he asked lawmakers to enact tariff reform.

• In 1973, artist Pablo Picasso died in Mougins (MOO’-zhun), France, at age 91.

• In 1974, Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hit his 715th career home run in a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, breaking Babe Ruth’s record.

• In 1992, tennis great Arthur Ashe announced at a New York news conference that he had AIDS, having contracted the virus during a 1983 heart operation (Ashe died in Feb. 1993 of AIDS-related pneumonia at age 49).

On April 9 • In 1682, French explorer Robert de La Salle claimed the Mississippi River Basin for France.

• In 1865, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia.

• In 1940, during World War II, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway.

• In 1947, a series of tornadoes in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas claimed 181 lives.

• In 1959, NASA presented its first seven astronauts: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Donald Slayton. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright, 91, died in Phoenix, Arizona.

On April 10 • In 1790, President George Washington signed the first United States Patent Act.

• In 1925, the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel “The Great Gatsby” was first published by Scribner’s of New York.

• In 1947, Brooklyn Dodgers President Branch Rickey purchased the contract of Jackie Robinson from the Montreal Royals.

• In 1974, Golda Meir told party leaders she was resigning as prime minister of Israel.