TODAY IN WORLD HISTORY
Today is Tuesday, April 18, the 108th day of 2017. There are 257 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlights in History On April 18, 1942, during World War II, an air squadron from the USS Hornet led by Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle raided Tokyo and other Japanese cities. The first World War II edition of The Stars and Stripes was published as a weekly newspaper.
On this date • In 1775, Paul Revere began his famous ride from Charlestown to Lexington, Massachusetts, warning colonists that British Regular troops were approaching.
• In 1865, Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman near Durham Station in North Carolina.
• In 1906, a devastating earthquake struck San Francisco, followed by raging fires; estimates of the final death toll range between 3,000 and 6,000.
• In 1925, the first Woman’s World’s Fair, an eight-day event, opened in Chicago.
• In 1934, the first laundromat was opened by John F. Cantrell in Fort Worth, Texas; the “Washateria,” as it was called, rented four electric washing machines to the public on an hourly basis.
• In 1945, during World War II, famed American war correspondent Ernie Pyle, 44, was killed by Japanese gunfire on the Pacific island of Ie Shima (ee-eh sheemah), off Okinawa.
• In 1946, the League of Nations met for the last time. The International Court of Justice, the judicial arm of the United Nations, held its first sitting in The Hague, Netherlands.
• In 1956, American actress Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier (rayNEER’) of Monaco in a civil ceremony. (A church wedding took place the next day.)
• In 1966, “The Sound of Music” won the Oscar for best picture of 1965 at the 38th Academy Awards. The first Major League baseball game played on AstroTurf took place at the Houston Astrodome as the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Astros 6-3. Bill Russell was named player-coach of the Boston Celtics, becoming the NBA’s first black coach.
• In 1978, the Senate approved the Panama Canal Treaty, providing for the complete turnover of control of the waterway to Panama on the last day of 1999.
• In 1983, 63 people, including 17 Americans, were killed at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, by a suicide bomber.
• In 1996, Israeli shells killed 107 Lebanese refugees in a United Nations camp; Israel called the attack an “unfortunate mistake.” Gunmen opened fire at a hotel in Egypt, killing 18 Greek tourists they’d mistaken for Israelis.
Ten years ago The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, upheld the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act, saying it did not violate a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion. Four large bombs exploded in mainly Shiite locations of Baghdad, killing at least 183 people. Mark Buehrle (BUR’-lee) of the Chicago White Sox faced the minimum 27 batters in a 6-0 no-hit victory over the Texas Rangers. Curtis Strange and Hubert Green were elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Five years ago Defense Secretary Leon Panetta apologized for gruesome photographs published in the Los Angeles Times that purported to show U.S. soldiers posing with the bloodied remains of dead insurgents in Afghanistan two years earlier. Dick Clark, the ever-youthful television host and producer who helped bring rock ‘n’ roll into the mainstream on “American Bandstand” and rang in the New Year for the masses at Times Square, died in Santa Monica, California, at age 82.
One year ago The U.S. agreed to deploy more than 200 additional troops to Iraq and to send eight Apache helicopters for the first time into the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq, the first major increase in U.S. forces in nearly a year.