TODAY IN 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 1820, the Venus de Milo statue was discovered by a farmer on the Greek island of Milos. 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 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Emergency Relief Appropriations Act, which provided money for programs such as the Works Progress Administration. In 1946, the League of Nations assembled in Geneva for its final session. 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).
Ten years ago: Powerful Shiite (SHEE’-eyet) cleric Muqtada al-Sadr (mook-TAH’-duh al SAH’dur) ordered his militiamen to redouble their battle to oust American forces from Iraq and called on the country’s army and police to join him in defeating “your archenemy.” Zach Johnson won the Masters with a two-shot victory over Tiger Woods.
Five years ago: A U.N.-brokered plan to stop the bloodshed in Syria effectively collapsed after President Bashar Assad’s government raised new, last-minute demands that the country’s largest rebel group swiftly rejected.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor-turned-diplomat John Gavin is 86. Author and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Seymour Hersh is 80. Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is 79. Basketball Hall-of-Famer John Havlicek is 77. Rhythmand-blues singer J.J. Jackson is
76. Singer Peggy Lennon (The Lennon Sisters) is 76. Songwriter-producer Leon Huff is 75. Actor Hywel Bennett is 73. Rock musician Steve Howe is 70. Actor John Schneider is 57. “Survivor” winner Richard Hatch is 56. Rock musician Izzy Stradlin is 55. Actor Dean Norris is 54. Rock singer-musician Donita Sparks is 54. Rapper Biz Markie is 53. Actress Robin Wright is 51. Rock musician Darren Jessee is 46. Actress Emma Caulfield is
44.
Thought for Today: “A highbrow is a person educated beyond his intelligence.”—James Brander Matthews, American author and educator (1852-1929).