TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Saturday, April 29, the 119th day of 2017. There are 246 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History

On April 29, 1992, a jury in Simi Valley, California, acquitted four Los Angeles police officers of almost all state charges in the videotaped beating of motorist Rodney King; the verdicts were followed by several days of rioting in Los Angeles resulting in 55 deaths.

On this date

1429 — Joan of Arc entered the besieged city of Orleans to lead a French victory over the English. 1798 — Joseph Haydn’s oratorio “The Creation” was rehearsed in Vienna, Austria, before an invited audience. 1817 — Representatives of the United States and Britain concluded the Rush-Bagot Agreement, which limited the number of naval vessels allowed in the Great Lakes. 1861 — The Maryland House of Delegates voted 53-13 against seceding from the Union. In Montgomery, Alabama, President Jefferson Davis asked the Confederate Congress for the authority to wage war. 1916 — The Easter Rising in Dublin collapsed as Irish nationalists surrendered to Britain. 1945 — During World War II, American soldiers liberated the Dachau concentration camp. Adolf Hitler married Eva Braun in his “Fuhrerbunker.” 1967 — Aretha Franklin’s cover of Otis Redding’s “Respect” was released as a single. 1987 — Ronnie DeSillers, a 7-year-old liver recipient whose story had prompted thousands of Americans, including President Ronald Reagan, to lend support, died at a Pittsburgh hospital while awaiting a fourth transplant.

Today’s Birthdays

Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff is 79. Country singer Duane Allen (The Oak Ridge Boys) is 74. Singer Tommy James is 70. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld is 63. Actress Kate Mulgrew is 62. Actor Daniel Day-Lewis is 60. Lamar T. Ammons Jr. of Rome is 59. Actress Michelle Pfeiffer is 59. Actress Uma Thurman is 47. Actress-model Taylor Cole is 33. Actor Zane Carney is 32. Pop singer Foxes is 28.