TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Tuesday, April 20, the 110th day of 2021.
Today’s highlight in history
On April 20, 1999, the Columbine High School massacre took place in Colorado as two students shot and killed 12 classmates and one teacher before taking their own lives.
On this date
In 1812, the fourth vice president of the United States, George Clinton, died at age 72, becoming the first vice president to die while in office.
In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed a proclamation admitting West Virginia to the Union, effective in 60 days (on June 20, 1863).
In 1914, the Ludlow Massacre took place when the Colorado National Guard opened fire on a tent colony of striking miners; about 20 (accounts vary) strikers, women and children died.
In 1945, Allied forces took control of the German cities of Nuremberg and Stuttgart.
In 1971, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the use of busing to achieve racial desegregation in schools.
In 1972, Apollo 16’s lunar module, carrying astronauts
John W. Young and Charles M. Duke Jr., landed on the moon.
In 1988, gunmen who had hijacked a Kuwait Airways jumbo jet were allowed safe passage out of Algeria under an agreement that freed the remaining 31 hostages and ended a 15-day siege in which two passengers were slain.
In 2003, U.S. Army forces took control of Baghdad from the Marines in a changing of the guard that thinned the military presence in the capital.
In 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, leased by BP, killed 11 workers and caused a blowout that began spewing an estimated 200 million gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico.
Today’s birthdays
Actor Leslie Phillips is 97. Former Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., is 85. Actor George Takei is 84. Singer Johnny Tillotson is 83. Actor Ryan O’Neal is 80. Actor Judith O’Dea is 76. Actor Jessica Lange is 72. Actor Veronica Cartwright is 72. Actor Clint Howard is 62. Actor Crispin Glover is 57. Actor Andy Serkis is 57. Figure skater Rosalynn Sumners is 57. Actor William deVry is 53. Actor Shemar Moore is 51. Actor Carmen Electra is 49. Singer Stephen Marley is 49. Actor Joey Lawrence is 45. Actor Carlos Valdes (“The Flash”) is 32.